THE   BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW 


THE  BOOK  OF 

DANIEL  DREW 


A  Glimpse  of  the  Fisk-Gould-Tweed 
Regime  from  the  Inside 


By 
BOUCK  WHITE 


New  York 

Doubleday,  Page   &   Company 
1910 


ALL    RIGHTS  RESERVED,   INCLUDING  THAT  OF  TRANSLATION 
INTO  FOREIGN  LANGUAGES,   INCLUDING  THE  SCANDINAVIAN 


COPYRIGHT,   I Q 10,  BY  DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 
PUBLISHED  APRIL,  IQIO 


EDITOR'S  NOTE 

A  caution  to  the  reader  is  necessary.  From  the 
fact  that  these  papers  are  put  in  the  first  person 
throughout,  one  unwarned  would  get  the  impression 
that  they  were  left  by  Mr.  Drew  in  finished  form, 
and  that  my  task  as  editor  had  been  merely  to 
dig  up  from  the  rubbish  of  some  attic  a  bundle  of 
manuscript  undiscovered  these  thirty  years  since  his 
death,  and  hand  it  over  to  the  printer. 

This  view  would  be  the  more  natural,  because  of 
the  following  article  (I  quote  it  in  part),  which 
appeared  in  the  New  York  Tribune,  February  8, 1905: 

"  A  diary  of  Daniel  Drew,  containing  pen  pic 
tures  of  former  Wall  Street  celebrities  and 
accounts  of  old-time  financial  transactions, 
has  been  discovered.  It  came  to  New  York  the 
other  day  in  an  old  trunk  which  was  shipped 
down  from  Putnam  County  to  a  grandniece 
of  the  financier  from  the  Drew  estate  in 
Carmel.  Yesterday,  in  going  through  her 
consignment,  she  came  upon  the  diary.  'Jim* 
Fisk  is  mentioned  often  in  its  pages,  and  also 
Cornelius  Vanderbilt.  Events  of  '  Black 
Friday*  are  touched  on." 

The  article  goes  on  to  state  that  the  diary  would  be 
prepared  for  publication. 

From  this  one  might  infer  that  the  papers 
which  follow  were  received  from  the  pen  of  Mr. 
Drew  in  the  connected  form  in  which  they  here  are 


vi  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL  DREW 

given.  Which  impression  would  be  quite  erroneous. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  the  material  out  of  which  this 
series  of  papers  has  been  made,  were  in  the  most 
jumbled  and  helter-skelter  form  imaginable.  Even 
where  I  have  had  the  clear  words  of  Mr.  Drew  to 
guide  me,  I  have  had  to  "English"  it  for  the  easy 
comprehension  of  the  reader.  For,  as  the  pages 
themselves  state,  schools  were  not  plentiful  in  our 
rural  districts  a  hundred  years  ago;  and  an  educa 
tion  of  the  book  kind  was  not  only  hard  to  get,  but 
was  also  little  valued  in  comparison  with  practical 
skill — the  ability  to  bring  things  to  pass.  In  alter 
ing  his  grammar  and  spelling,  therefore,  so  as  to 
make  for  easy  reading,  much  of  the  tang  and  indi 
viduality  which,  to  those  who  knew  him,  Daniel 
Drew  possessed  to  an  uncommon  degree,  has 
undoubtedly  been  sacrificed.  In  order  to  whip  the 
life  story  here  recorded  into  something  approaching 
coherence  and  clearness,  I  have  had  to  shape  the 
thing  from  the  start. 

In  fact,  my  share  in  the  preparation  of  this  vol 
ume  has  had  to  be  so  large,  even  writing  with  my 
own  hand  parts  which  were  needed  in  order  to  sup 
ply  the  connection — putting  these  also,  as  in  the  case 
of  historical  drama,  in  the  first  person — that  I  had 
doubts  as  to  whether  plain  biography  might  not  have 
been  the  better  form,  as  being  less  liable  to  miscon 
struction.  But  I  decided  to  let  it  go  forth  in  the 
first  person  throughout,  provided  it  could  be  accom- 


EDITOR'S  NOTE  vii 

panied  by  a  foreword  of  explanation.  In  historical 
drama,  the  poetic  form  is  sufficient  notice  to  the 
reader  that  the  speeches  are  not  stenographic  re 
ports,  though  the  situations  and  spirit  of  the  whole 
are  true  to  history.  In  the  present  case  I  have 
sought  to  convey  the  same  notification  by  means  of 
this  introduction.  That  errors  have  crept  into  a 
work  pieced  as  this  has  been  out  of  scraps  and  frag 
ments,  is  to  be  expected.  But  I  venture  to  state 
that  these  will  be  found  to  concern  matters  of  unes 
sential  detail  alone.  In  the  drift  and  temper  of  the 
work  as  a  whole,  I  pledged  myself  to  absolute  adher 
ence  to  the  originals. 

The  events  narrated  constitute  a  stirring  and  im 
portant  era  in  our  nation's  history.  The  develop 
ment  of  navigation  on  the  Hudson  River,  brought 
recently  to  the  front  by  the  tri-centennial  celebration; 
the  Erie  Railroad  and  its  vicissitudes;  early  days  in 
Wall  Street;  the  religious  spirit  of  a  former  age,  a 
spirit  which  to-day  in  all  of  the  churches  is  changing 
rapidly  for  the  better;  the  Tweed  Ring  in  New  York 
City — these  and  other  events  touched  on  in  the 
papers  which  here  follow,  are  not  without  historical 
value.  Some  of  the  facts  and  viewpoints  here  given 
have  not,  to  my  knowledge,  found  their  way  else 
where  into  print. 

BOUCK  WHITE. 

Head  Resident's  Study, 

Trinity  Neighborhood  House 
New  York  City. 


CONTENTS 


PACK 


I.     Jay  Gould's  "History" 3 

II.     A  Militiaman  in  the  War  of  1812 7 

III.  Early  Circus  Days 21 

IV.  Life  as  a  Drover 28 

V.     A  Backslider         36 

VI.  Origin  of  the  Wall  Street  Term,  "Watered 

Stock" 42 

VII.     Astor  Seeks  an  Interview        55 

VIII.     Life  at  the  "Bulls  Head"  Tavern 61 

IX.  Pioneer  Cattle  Driving       ...     1     ....  76 

X.     Farewell  to  a  Drover's  Life 87 

XI.  Early  Steamboat  Days  on  the  Hudson     ...  92 

XII.  Commodore  Vanderbilt  Loses  a  Steamboat 

Race 108 

XIII.  Wall  Street 113 

XIV.  The  Church  on  Mulberry  Street 123 

XV.     The  Erie  Railroad 129 

XVI.     Gets  Control  of  the  Erie 139 

XVII.     Wall  Street  in  the  Civil  War 155 

XVIII.     A  Visit  from  Boss  Tweed 163 

XIX.     The  Railroad  to  Harlem 170 

XX.  Building  of  Churches.     "California"  Parker    .  182 
ix 


x  CONTENTS 

FACE 

XXI.     Meets  "Jim"  Fisk 198 

XXII.     War  with  Vanderbilt 207 

XXIII.  The  Printing  Press 219 

XXIV.  Escape  to  Jersey  City 233 

XXV.     "Fort"  Taylor 242 

XXVI.  End  of  the  War  and  Treaty  of  Peace       ...  257 

XXVII.     Drew  Theological  Seminary 282 

XXVIII.     A  Red  Letter  Day 291 

XXIX.     A  Wreck  on  the  Erie 302 

XXX.     Prosperity 309 

XXXI.     Trade  Secrets 316 

XXXII.    The  Lock  Up  of  Greenbacks 324 

XXXIII.  Light  Women 333 

XXXIV.  Golden  Wedding 347 

XXXV.     Inside  History 354 

XXXVI.     A  Prayer  That  Went  Wrong 362 

XXXVII.     Shooting  of  Fisk  by  Ed.  Stokes 380 

XXXVIII.     Outwitted  by  Gould 391 

XXXIX.     Panic  of '73 403 

XL.    The  End 416 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL  DREW 


/ J 


<jSHV£RSi' 
&!.£*& 


The  Book  of  Daniel  Drew 

i 

MEMORIES  —  that's  what  this  thing  is  going 
to  be.  What  I  remember  Til  put  down. 
What  I  don't  remember  I  won't  put  down. 
Or  else  I'll  put  it  down  cautious-like,  so  you'll  know 
it  isn't  real  gospel  but  only  a  sort  of  think-so.  For 
after  going  on  eighty  years,  a  fellow  gets  a  little  mite 
rusty  as  to  some  of  the  goods  packed  away  in  his 
upper  story.  Whenever  I  talked  with  people  I 
didn't  jot  it  down  word  for  word.  Therefore  it's 
only  the  gist  of  it  that  you  get  here  in  these  papers. 
Anyhow  I  never  was  much  at  writer-work.  Jay 
was  the  boy  for  that.  I  mean  Jason  Gould.  (He 
got  to  calling  himself  "  Jay,"  and  so  the  rest  of  us 
called  him  by  that  name,  too.)  In  our  doings  —  I 
mean,  the  doings  of  Jim  Fisk,  Jay  Gould  and  me, 
for  we  were  in  a  partnership  together  a  long  time  — 
Jay  would  do  most  of  the  writer-work.  "Jay, 
you're  the  ink  slinger,"  Jimmy  would  say  to  him, 
and  would  pull  him  up  to  the  table  and  slap  a  pen 
in  his  hand.  He  would  do  it  so  rough  that  Jay, 
who  is  a  slip  of  a  man,  would  wince.  But  Jimmy 

3 


4  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL  DREW 

had  so  hearty  a  way  of  slapping  you  on  your  shoulder 
with  his  big  paws,  that  nobody  could  stay  mad  at 
him  for  very  long  together. 

As  I  started  to  say,  Jay  had  a  high  and  noble  way 
of  stringing  words  together  —  a  knack  which  I 
never  could  get.  See  that  opening  of  his  "  History 
of  Delaware  County,"  which  he  wrote  back  in  '55, 
before  he  came  to  New  York  to  make  money.  It's 
worth  reading  over  and  over,  if  for  nothing  more 
than  its  moral  teachings: 

"History,  with  the  more  and  more  extensive 
meaning  acquired  by  the  advancement  of  civilization, 
by  the  diffusion  of  education,  and  by  the  elevation 
of  the  standard  of  human  liberty,  has  expanded  into 
a  grand  and  beautiful  science.  It  treats  of  man  in  all 
his  social  relations,  whether  civil,  religious,  or  literary, 
in  which  he  has  intercourse  with  his  fellows.  The 
study  of  history,  to  a  free  government  like  the  one 
in  which  we  live,  is  an  indispensable  requisite  to  the 
improvement  and  elevation  of  the  human  race.  It 
leads  us  back  through  the  ages  that  have  succeeded 
each  other  in  time  past;  it  exhibits  the  conditions 
of  the  human  race  at  each  respective  period,  and  by 
following  down  its  pages  from  the  vast  empires  and 
mighty  cities  now  ingulfed  in  oblivion  but  which  the 
faithful  historian  presents  in  a  living  light  before  us, 
we  are  enabled  profitably  to  compare  and  form  a  more 
correct  appreciation  of  our  own  relative  position. 

"It  is  certain  that  the  more  enlightened  and  free 
a  people  become  the  more  the  government  devolves 
upon  themselves;  and  hence  the  necessity  of  a  care- 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL  DREW  5 

ful  study  of  history,  which,  by  showing  the  height 
to  which  man  as  an  intellectual  being  is  capable 
of  elevating  himself  in  the  scale  of  usefulness  and 
moral  worth,  teaches  that  the  virtues  of  a  good  man 
are  held  in  sacred  emulation  by  his  countrymen  for 
ages  succeeding,  long  after  the  scythe  of  time  has 
gathered  the  earthly  remains  of  the  actor  to  the 
silent  grave.  Such  thoughts,  or  rather  such  reflec 
tions  as  these,  inspire  within  the  human  bosom  an 
ardent  desire  to  attain  that  which  is  good  and  shun 
that  which  is  evil,  an  honest  and  laudable  ambition 
to  become  both  great  and  good;  or,  as  another  has 
beautifully  written:  'Great  only  as  we  are  good.' ' 

You'll  have  to  foot  it  many  a  mile  to  find  writing 
to  equal  that.  Fine,  noble  words  seemed  to  come  to 
Jay  natural-like.  If  I  could  write  in  that  fashion 
I'd  be  stuck  up.  But  Jay  wasn't;  in  fact,  he  didn't 
use  to  like  it  when  I  would  remind  him  of  this 
opening  chapter  of  his  "History  of  Delaware 
County." 

"Twaddle!"  he'd  say;  "it's  nothing  but  a  lot  of 
gush,  written  when  I  was  a  youth  out  there  back  of 
the  Catskill  Mountains."  Jay  always  was  modest. 
He  didn't  like  to  be  pushed  to  the  front.  Jimmy 
was  the  boy  —  I  mean  Jim  Fisk  —  to  occupy  the 
front  pew.  He  never  minded  it  a  bit;  in  fact, 
would  rather  sit  there  than  anywhere  else  in  meeting 
-  that  is,  so  to  speak;  because  Jimmy  didn't  go  to 
meeting  really. 

Well,  as  I  started  to  say,  I  never  was  much  on  the 


6  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL  DREW 

writer-business.  So  I  don't  want  any  one  to  sup 
pose  that  I'm  trying  here  to  write  history,  like  what 
Jay  wrote.  I  haven't  got  big  enough  words  for 
that.  In  these  diary  papers,  I  just  set  it  down  in 
the  first  words  that  come  to  me.  And  I'm  not 
scared  to  put  the  whole  story  in,  either.  "What's 
the  use  of  digging  up  dead  dogs  ?"  some  of  the  boys 
might  say.  But  I'm  not  scared.  I  have  been  busy 
all  my  days,  and  now  that  I'm  so  old  that  they  won't 
let  me  speckilate  in  stocks  as  I  used  to,  I've  got  to 
keep  busy.  So  I'm  going  to  write  out  some  things. 
Goodness  knows,  nobody  need  be  scared  at  it.  Do 
the  best  I  can,  these  papers  won't  stay  in  order; 
they're  a  mixed-up  mess  of  stuff.  The  pages  in  the 
forepart  of  a  chapter  get  lost  somewheres  in  the  desk 
before  I  get  to  the  finish.  So  that,  if  I  can't  make 
head  nor  tail  to  the  thing  three  months  after  I've 
written  it,  who  else  can  ?  Then,  too,  people  have 
always  said,  "Nobody  on  earth  can  read  Uncle  Dan 
Drew's  quail  tracks."  So,  what  is  there  to  be  scared 
of?  Besides,  even  if  the  people  should  get  the  story, 
what's  the  harm  ?  The  boys  who  would  be  mad 
at  me  for  ripping  up  old  scores,  as  they'd  call  it,  are 
too  thin-skinned.  They  are  sensitive  to  the  speech  of 
people.  But  I'm  not  sensitive.  I  don't  care  a  hill  of 
beans  for  the  speech  of  people.  Never  did.  If  people 
want  to  know  about  some  of  the  things  that  have 
happened  in  my  life-time,  they  are  welcome.  I  shan't 
make  any  bones  of  letting  them  know  the  whole  story. 


II 


JAY  wrote  his  history  about  Delaware  County 
in  York  State.  My  story  —  the  first  part  —  will 
have  to  be  about  Putnam  County,  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Hudson.  For  I  was  born  there  - 
in  1797.  It  was  in  Carmel,  on  a  farm  above  the 
Lake,  on  the  "Pond  Hill  Road/'  alongside  of 
Whangtown  Brook.  Follow  up  that  brook  until 
you  come  to  a  hill  on  the  left  as  steep  as  a  meeting 
house  roof.  Climb  to  the  top.  And  there,  just  at 
the  fork  of  the  road  where  it  turns  to  go  to  Farmer's 
Mills,  is  where  the  house  stood.  There  were  locust 
trees  in  the  front  yard,  and  a  well  of  cool  water 
alongside  the  house,  in  the  back  yard.  My  father's 
name  was  Gilbert  Drew.  He  was  of  English 
extraction.  My  mother  was  a  Catherine  Muckel- 
worth,  of  Scotch  blood,  as  you  could  guess  by  the 
name.  She  was  a  master-hand  in  sickness,  and 
kept  in  the  house  a  store  of  roots  and  herbs.  There 
was  boneset  and  pennyroyal,  smartweed,  catnip, 
skunk  cabbage,  sarsaparilla,  wild  turnip,  and  such 
like.  In  those  days  it  was  a  good  thing  to  have  a 
parent  that  knew  something  about  medicine. 
Because  the  saddle-bag  doctor  was  hard  to  locate 

7 


8  THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

just    when    you    wanted    him.     lie    wasn't    always 
very    knowing    either.     "Old    Bleed'em,    Puke'em, 
and  Purge'em,"  was  what  we  used  to    call    him  - 
"Old  Blisters"  was  another  name. 

I  didn't  get  much  schooling  —  somehow  never 
took  to  it.  In  fact  there  wasn't  much  book-learning 
to  take  to  in  those  days.  Carmel  then  wasn't  built 
up  around  where  the  village  now  stands.  What 
there  was  of  the  village  nestled  around  Old  Gilead 
Meeting-house,  at  the  other  end  of  the  Lake  from 
us.  Old  Gilead  was  near  Mt.  Pisgah,  and  a  good 
two  miles  from  my  home.  It  was  a  different  kind 
of  a  place  from  Brimstone  Hollow,  a  mile  or  two 
beyond.  Old  Gilead  used  to  be  known  only  as 
"Gregory's  Parish,"  until  he  preached  —  Parson 
Nathan  Gregory,  I  mean  —  that  wonderful  sermon 
of  his  from  the  text,  "Is  there  no  balm  in  Gilead  ?" 
whereby  the  entire  meeting  was  so  set  on  fire 
with  godliness  that  they  named  the  church 
"Gilead  Meeting-house"  from  that  day.  Carmei 
was  settled  by  people  from  Barnstable  County, 
on  Cape  Cod,  and  had  lots  of  religion  even  in  its 
earliest  days. 

Well,  as  I  started  to  say,  in  my  day  the  preacher 
used  to  have  both  parishes,  Gilead  and  another, 
called  Red  Mills,  a  few  miles  away.  He  would 
take  turns,  living  for  a  spell  at  one  place  and  then 
for  a  spell  at  the  other.  During  his  stays  at  Gilead 
he  kept  a  school  in  his  house.  So  that  I  got  a  little 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  9 

education.  But  it  was  only  in  snatches,  so  to  speak. 
When  you've  got  to  walk  three  miles  for  it,  the 
amount  of  book-learning  you're  going  to  bring  back 
with  you  isn't  going  to  be  very  hefty.  Of  course, 
there  were  the  spelling-bees.  But  I  had  never  got 
much  beyond  the  "b-a,  baker,"  in  school;  and  so 
I  always  got  spelled  down  the  very  first  time  round. 
But  I  never  minded  that  very  much.  I  never  did 
care  two  pins  what  people  thought  of  me.  I'd  take 
my  place  in  any  spell-down,  no  matter  how  many 
people  were  looking  on. 

Then,  too,  even  when  there  was  a  parson-teacher 
at  Gilead,  there  was  no  end  to  the  things  that  used 
to  pop  up  and  keep  me  from  school.  Whangtown 
Brook  used  to  have  some  of  the  biggest  trout  you 
ever  saw.  And  when  a  boy  brings  home  a  good 
string  offish  for  the  table,  his  ma  isn't  going  to  scold 
him  much  for  playing  hookey  from  school.  And 
I  was  needed  a  good  deal  around  the  farm.  Not 
that  we  were  poor.  For  those  days  we  were  com 
fortably  well  ofF  —  that  is,  compared  to  the  rest  of 
the  people.  We  had  a  farm  of  nigh  on  to  a  hundred 
acres,  and  that  was  what  lots  of  people  didn't  have. 
In  those  days  nobody  up  in  our  part  of  the  state  had 
any  great  store  of  this  world's  goods.  For  this  was, 
as  everybody  knows,  just  after  the  Revolutionary 
War.  In  the  war,  our  part  of  York  State  was  what 
was  known  as  the  Debated  Country.  The  Red  Coats 
were  stationed  down  in  New  York  City,  the  patriot 


io  THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

troops  up  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Albany.  This 
left  Putnam  and  Westchester  Counties  between  the 
two,  like  a  grain  of  wheat  between  the  upper  and 
nether  mill-stones,  as  Scripture  says.  The  region 
was  well  nigh  ground  to  pieces.  First  the  Red 
Coats  would  overrun  the  county.  Then  the  Patriots 
would  take  a  turn  at  it.  Until,  by  the  time  they 
both  got  through,  the  farms  looked  about  as  hand 
some  as  a  skinned  rabbit.  5 

Sugar  was  very  high.  We  used  maple  sugar  a 
good  deal.  Father  also  would  drive  over  to  Fishkill 
on  the  Hudson,  and  get  of  the  store-keeper  a  molasses 
barrel  after  the  molasses  had  been  drawn  out.  In  the 
bottom  of  an  empty  molasses  barrel  is  a  whole  lot 
of  caked  molasses  that  makes  as  fine  sugar  as  a  man 
ever  put  in  his  mouth.  But  even  with  these  shifts, 
sugar  and  sweetening  were  scarce  things.  Some 
times,  when  we  were  to  have  company  and  sweeten 
ing  was  scarce,  mother  in  making  a  pie  would 
sweeten  only  one  end  of  it.  She  would  place  it  on 
the  table  in  such  a  way  that  the  company  would 
get  the  sweet  end;  and  we  boys,  Tom  and  I  (Tom 
was  my  brother,  a  little  older  than  me),  would  have 
to  steer  for  the  sour  end.  Molasses  was  good  for 
medicine  also.  Because  the  itch  was  almost  every 
where  in  those  days.  It  was  well  nigh  the  most 
bothersome  complaint  we  had.  Lice  are  not  so 
serious.  After  you  get  used  to  them  they  don't 
bother  you  much.  But  the  itch  is  a  pestersome 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  n 

thing.  Unless  you  keep  it  down  with  a  powerful 
hand  it  will  break  out  all  over  you.  And  molasses- 
and-sulphur  was  a  sovereign  remedy. 

Tom  and  I  had  to  work  hard,  often  during  school 
term.  Father  was  old,  mother  being  his  second 
wife.  And  our  farm,  besides,  was  almighty  rough 
and  hilly.  Some  parts  of  it  were  as  steep  as  the 
shingles  on  a  house.  Then  there  were  the  stones 
and  rocks  to  clear  away.  How  sick  I  got  of  prying 
those  rocks  out  of  the  fields,  with  an  old  axle  for  a 
crowbar,  and  stone-boating  them  over  to  the  boun 
daries  to  make  fences  of. 

The  woods  were  so  plentiful  that  the  farm  was 
not  of  much  use  except  for  stock-raising.  And 
stock-raising  means  work  pretty  nigh  all  the  time. 
Because  there  were  always  poor  spots  in  the  fences. 
And,  trust  me,  there  is  no  critter  like  a  heifer  or  a 
bull  calf  for  finding  weak  spots  in  a  fence,  par 
ticularly  if  it's  a  line  fence.  And  when  your  cattle 
get  over  into  the  other  fellow's  field,  you  have  to 
get  after  them  mighty  quick.  Also  our  pasture  lots 
were  for  the  most  part  woods.  We  had  ear 
marks  in  those  days  by  which  we  could  tell  our  cattle 
if  they  got  mixed  up  with  others.  For  example,  the 
left  ear  would  be  notched  on  the  top  with  the  right 
ear  cropped  off  square  and  a  hole  in  the  middle. 
So  that  if  we  found  a  critter  with  a  notch  in  the  right 
ear  instead  of  the  left,  we  knew  he  belonged  to  some 
body  else.  When  you  have  to  look  through  the 


12  THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

woods  for  your  milch  cows,  to  bring  them  home  at 
night  for  milking,  with  nothing  to  go  by  but  the  sound 
of  the  bell  dingling  from  the  cow's  neck,  and  some 
times  not  even  that,  they  would  be  so  far  off;  why,  it 
means  that  you've  got  work  on  your  hands.  When 
there  was  nothing  out  in  the  fields  to  do,  the  chores 
had  to  be  looked  after.  And  then,  just  like  as  not, 
mother  would  say,  "Dan,  I  need  a  new  broom." 
That  would  mean  that  I'd  have  to  look  up  a  straight 
birch  sapling  from  the  woods,  and  with  a  sharp 
jackknife  cut  one  end  of  it  into  splints  and  bind  them 
around,  so  as  to  make  a  new  broom.  We  had  to 
cart  our  farm  truck,  or  young  calves,  eighteen  miles 
across  country  to  Peekskill-on-the-Hudson.  From 
there  a  sloop  ran  to  New  York,  for  carrying  pas 
sengers  and  freight.  Later  on,  a  line  of  market 
wagons  went  through  Carmel  to  Peekskill  twice  a 
week,  and  gathered  up  the  produce  of  the  farms. 
But  in  the  early  days,  each  farmer  had  to  do  his  own 
marketing. 

So  I  reached  the  age  of  fifteen  without  much 
book-learning.  Then  came  the  War  of  1812.  And 
the  school-teacher  wasn't  heard  of  any  more.  The 
farms,  as  I  said,  had  been  left  so  spoiled  by  the 
Revolutionary  War  as  hardly  to  make  grazing  for 
a  goose.  And  now,  just  when  the  farmers  were 
getting  on  their  feet  again,  along  comes  the  War  of 
1812  and  knocks  things  gaily  west  once  more.  We 
knew  in  Putnam  County  that  a  war  was  on,  even 


THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  13 

though  there  wasn't  any  fighting  in  our  section. 
Because  we  used  to  get  news  regular,  although  it 
would  be  sometimes  a  little  late  in  coming.  There 
was  the  Red  Bird  line  of  stages  from  Albany  to 
New  York.  They  changed  horses  at  Luddington's 
Tavern,  in  Carmel  —  these  stages  ran  only  in 
winter,  because  in  summer  travel  from  New 
York  to  Albany  was  by  sloop.  In  the  summer 
time,  also,  when  the  boats  were  sailing  on  the  river, 
there  was  another  line  of  stages,  running  from 
Carmel  to  Peekskill,  by  the  turnpike  which  went 
just  south  of  the  Fishkill  Mountains  across  Peeks- 
kill  hollow.  We  got  our  news  from  the  stage-driver, 
as  he  drove  up  to  Carmel  in  the  great  stage  that  was 
painted  bright  red,  and  with  the  bells  jingling  on 
the  four  horses.  These  stages  would  come  once  a 
day  on  their  way  through  Somers,  to  Carmel,  to 
Luddingtonville,  and  so  on  up  north.  (It  took 
four  days  for  the  stage  to  make  the  trip  from  New 
York  to  Stockbridge,  Mass.,  and  Bennington,  Vt., 
through  Dingle  Ridge.)  There  were  also  post- 
riders,  who  came  into  the  town  every  Saturday 
afternoon  on  horseback  with  newspapers  from  Hart 
ford  and  Poughkeepsie. 

Then,  too,  we  used  to  learn  the  news  in  a  general 
way  when  the  cobbler  came  to  the  house  once  a  year 
to  make  up  the  year's  supply  of  boots  and  shoes  for 
the  household.  "Whipping  the  cat"  used  to  be 
what  we  called  his  visit  —  I  guess  likely  from  his 


14  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

always  driving  the  cat  away  from  his  work  bench, 
for  she  seemed  possessed  to  hang  around  and  get  his 
waxed  ends  jummixed  up.  This  visit  of  the  cobbler 
was  quite  an  event  each  year.  Father  would  pre 
pare  for  it  by  swapping  a  pair  of  cattle  or  a  load  of 
potatoes  down  at  Foster's  tan-yard,  a  mile  the  other 
side  of  Luddington's  Tavern,  for  a  few  sides  of 
leather.  Then  the  cobbler  would  come  for  a  week 
or  so  and  make  the  leather  up  into  foot-wear.  So 
when  the  news  he  brought  was  about  a  war,  and 
about  the  goings-on  in  the  great  world  outside,  a 
boy  of  fifteen  was  going  to  listen  with  both  ears. 
When  the  cobbler  came  it  was  the  boy's  work  to  whit 
tle  out  the  pegs  for  him.  A  boy  would  really  get 
more  news  from  the  cobbler  than  any  other  member 
of  the  family,  since  he  would  be  nearer  to  him. 

In  these  ways,  little  by  little,  we  learned  about 
the  victory  of  Commodore  Perry  on  Lake  Erie,  and 
the  big  doings  of  our  navy  out  on  the  high  seas. 
But  it  seems  that  these  victories  on  water  hadn't 
done  much  good;  because  the  military  campaign 
along  the  entire  northern  frontier  of  our  country 
was  going  against  us.  The  English  were  pushing 
in  on  every  side.  It  looked  as  though  New  York 
might  be  taken.  The  President  had  issued  a  draft 
for  troops  to  defend  the  country.  And  men  were 
paying  as  high  as  a  hundred  dollars  for  a  substitute. 
That  hundred  dollars  looked  big  to  me.  It  seemed 
an  easy  way  to  earn  a  large  lump  of  money.  Times 


THE  BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW  15 

were  getting  harder  and  harder  out  on  our  hillside 
farm;  for  banks  all  over  the  country  were  stopping 
specie  payment,  and  silver  was  getting  as  scarce  as 
hens'  teeth.  So  when,  on  top  of  it  all,  my  father 
died,  I  decided  that  the  time  had  come.  I  made  up 
my  mind  to  leave  the  farm  in  charge  of  my  brother 
Tom  (he  being  the  oldest,  he  was  by  rights  the 
one  to  stay  home  and  take  care  of  things),  and  go 
out  and  see  the  world,  and  make  money  as  a  sub 
stitute  in  the  army.  First  along  mother  didn't 
exactly  take  to  the  idea.  But  I  showed  her  I  was 
sure  to  make  big  money.  I  was  to  get  one  hundred 
dollars  out  of  hand;  and  as  my  board  in  the  army 
wouldn't  cost  me  anything,  the  money  would  be 
clear  gain.  It  was  a  powerful  argument,  because 
she  was  thrifty.  A  hundred  dollars  all  in  a  lump 
looked  pretty  nigh  as  big  to  her  as  it  did  to  me. 
But  just  then  she  happened  to  think  of  another 
thing.  For  mother  was  old-fashioned. 

"See  here,  Danny,"  said  she;  "you're  under  age, 
and  to  get  into  the  service  you'd  have  to  tell  a  lie. 
And  besides,  you  might  get  killed;  and  then  where 
would  the  hundred  dollars  be?"  I  answered  that  I 
would  agree  to  leave  the  hundred  dollars  with  her  to 
keep  for  me,  before  I  started.  As  to  my  being  under 
age,  I  told  her  not  to  bother  herself  about  that  point. 
I  would  take  care  of  that.  Women,  anyhow,  are  apt 
to  be  squeamish  about  business  transactions.  Men 
are  more  sensible  —  they  know  that  if  a  cat  would 


16  THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

eat  fish  she  must  be  willing  to  wet  her  feet.  And  I 
told  mother  that  I  would  take  care  of  the  age  limit. 
I  calculated  that,  for  a  fellow  as  tall  for  his  years  as 
I  was,  I  could  fix  my  age  all  right. 

And  I  did.  The  Government  was  hard  pressed 
for  men.  So  the  recruiting  sergeant  didn't  narrow 
me  down  very  close  when  I  told  him  I  was  of  age.  I 
got  my  hundred  dollars,  handed  it  over  to  mother  to 
keep  for  me,  and  in  full  regimentals  of  the  State 
Militia,  with  knapsack  on  back  and  musket  over 
my  shoulder,  I  set  out  for  Peekskill.  There  I 
found  a  sloop  going  to  New  York,  and  got  aboard. 
These  sloops  were  big  affairs.  They  carried  people, 
live  stock  and  freight,  all  huddled  together.  When 
the  wind  and  tide  were  contrary,  or  when  the  wind 
died  down  altogether,  they  anchored,  and  you  would 
be  out  all  night  just  in  making  the  trip  to  New  York. 
In  that  case  you'd  have  to  sleep  the  best  way  you 
could.  But  you  could  find  a  good  berth  on  the  hay 
or  straw  which  usually  formed  a  part  of  the  boat's 
cargo.  As  long  as  it  didn't  rain,  you  could  pass  a 
night  very  comfortable. 

It  was  a  great  event  in  my  life,  this  trip  to  New 
York.  When  finally  we  came  to  where  the  Harlem 
River  empties  out  into  the  North  River,  the  man  at 
the  helm  pointed  it  out  to  the  passengers,  and  said, 
"there  was  the  island,  and  the  city  was  at  the  lower 
end  of  it."  Another  hour  of  sailing  brought  us  to 
where  the  city  lay.  We  landed  at  a  wharf  alongside 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  17 

where  the  Washington  Market  now  stands.  (The 
shore  at  that  point  has  been  filled  in  a  good  deal 
since  that  day.  Back  in  those  days,  boats  of  light 
draft  could  sail  right  in  and  land  pretty  near  to  the 
market.)  They  marched  me  off  along  with  the  rest, 
and  took  me  across  the  North  River  to  Fort  Gaines- 
vort,  opposite  New  York  City.  It  was  near  Paulus 
Hook  (which  is  now  Jersey  City).  There  my  com 
pany  was  stationed,  I  suppose  to  protect  New  York. 

And  now  my  good  luck  in  enlisting  showed  itself. 
For  my  company  didn't  have  to  do  a  smitch  of 
fighting.  I  just  lived  there  in  the  camp,  without  it 
costing  me  a  cent  for  food  or  lodging;  and  at  the 
end  of  three  months,  on  a  February's  day,  a  British 
sloop-of-war  from  Europe  sailed  into  New  York 
Harbour  with  the  news  that  our  Peace  Commis 
sioners  at  Ghent  had  succeeded  in  making  a  treaty. 
The  war  was  over. 

It  was  mighty  good  news  for  everybody.  That 
winter  had  been  one  of  the  hardest  New  York  City 
had  ever  seen.  The  weather  was  so  severe,  the 
North  River  froze  over  to  Paulus  Hook.  Hickory 
wood  sold  in  New  York  that  winter  for  $20  a  cord, 
and  hogs  fetched  $11  a  hundred.  (That  price  for 
butcher's  meat  set  me  thinking,  as  will  be  seen  a 
little  later.)  Milk  was  a  shilling  a  quart.  And 
the  President,  when  the  news  came,  had  been  just 
on  the  point  of  calling  for  75,000  more  militia.  I 
was  as  glad  as  the  rest.  Perhaps  a  little  more  so. 


18  THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

I  never  was  cut  out  to  be  a  soldier.  Not  that  I 
worried  much  about  the  hardships  of  life  in  camp. 
When  a  fellow  has  been  reared  on  a  hill-side  farm, 
his  cradle  a  sap-trough,  and  has  been  brought  up  to 
eat  from  wooden  plates,  he's  used  to  pot-luck,  and 
life  in  an  army  camp  doesn't  seem  hard  at  all. 
Still  I  was  glad  when  the  news  came  of  peace.  In 
a  battle  there's  always  a  danger  from  bullets  and 
bayonets,  and  from  cannon  balls.  I'm  by  nature 
a  peaceable  man.  And  I  had  cleaned  up  a  hundred 
dollars  in  the  space  of  three  months.  It  was  a  good 
stroke  of  business. 

I  set  out  for  home  as  soon  as  I  was  mustered  out. 
And  for  a  few  days  I  was  glad  to  be  back.  But  I 
soon  saw  that  I  wasn't  intended  for  a  humdrum 
life.  I  had  had  a  smack  of  big  things,  and  now  the 
everlasting  chores  on  the  farm  didn't  gee  with  my 
tastes.  My  brother  Tom  was  there  to  take  care  of 
those  things.  (He  said,  with  something  pretty 
near  to  cuss  words,  when  I  spoke  to  him  on  the  sub 
ject,  that  since  I  was  such  a  gadabout,  somebody 
had  to  buckle  down  and  run  the  farm,  in  order  to 
take  care  of  mother.) 

So  I  made  my  plans.  Going  to  mother,  I  said, 
"Mother,  I  want  my  substitute  money.  I'm  going 
into  business." 

"Goodness  sakes!"  she  replied;  "what  is  it  this 
time  ?  Some  new  fangle,  I'll  bet,  to  waste  your 
money  on." 


THE   BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW  19 

"No  new  fangle  at  all,"  said  I;  "I'm  going  to 
be  a  drover.  I'm  going  to  buy  up  cattle  for  the 
city  market.  And  I  need  the  hundred  dollars  to 
start  me  off.  I'm  young.  But  that's  the  time  to 
start  in.  Early  sow,  early  mow." 

"  But  are  you  sure,  Danny,"  said  she  (for  the 
idea  began  to  take  hold  of  her);  "are  you  sure  that 
you  won't  lose  your  money  ?"  I  told  her  I'd  planned 
the  thing  all  out;  it  was  going  to  be  a  money-maker. 
She  handed  the  hundred  dollars  over  to  me,  and  I 
became  a  drover. 

Not  exactly  a  drover,  either,  in  the  full  sense  of 
the  word.  I  became  a  buyer  of  bob  calves.  The 
laws  against  bob-veal  weren't  very  strict  in  those 
days  —  that  is,  they  weren't  enforced.  If  you 
could  get  anybody  to  buy  the  stuff,  the  law  didn't 
poke  its  nose  in  and  stop  you.  And  so,  I  would  go 
around  among  the  farmers  and  buy  a  calf  very  soon 
after  it  had  been  dropped.  I  had  my  troubles. 
Bob-calves  are  shaky  on  their  legs.  Then,  too, 
there's  its  mother  to  bother  you.  I  found  it  easier 
to  get  around  the  law  objection  against  bob-veal 
than  the  mother  objection  —  so  to  speak  —  that 
pair  of  wicked  horns,  when  you  go  to  take  the  calf 
away  from  its  dam!  But  the  right  kind  of  handling 
would  do  it.  And  then,  by  hurrying  the  calf  to 
market,  I  would  get  the  critter  off  my  hands  before 
it  sickened  and  died.  I  dare  say  that  the  flesh  now 
and  then  was  pretty  soft  for  real  good  eating.  Peo- 


20  THE  BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW 

pie  used  to  say,  "Veal  bought  from  that  young  Dan 
Drew  can  be  sucked  through  a  quill."  But  then, 
folks  who  said  these  things  were  jealous  of  me, 
because  I  worked  hard  and  managed  to  get  along. 

Besides,  with  me  it  was  a  case  of  calves  or  nothing. 
Because  I  didn't  have  the  money  to  go  into  the 
grown-up  cattle  business.  You  can  buy  calves  on  a 
small  capital  —  yes,  sometimes  without  capital  at 
all.  Because,  a  farmer  who  has  a  bull  calf  on  his 
hands  and  doesn't  want  to  feed  it,  will  often  let  you 
have  it  on  credit.  Sometimes  the  farmer  thinks 
that  a  calf  is  so  misshapen  and  puny  that  it  is  going 
to  die;  and  then  he  will  be  glad  to  get  it  off  of  his 
hands  on  any  terms.  But  when  it  comes  to  parting 
with  his  grown-up  critters,  a  farmer  is  almighty 
particular  about  whom  he  trusts. 


Ill 


THESE  years  of  mine  as  a  calf-drover  were 
broken  in  upon  a  little  later.  I  went  into 
the  circus  business. 

Some  time  after  the  War  of  1812,  the  travelling 
circus  came  into  fashion.  The  people  in  those  days 
lived  in  little  settlements.  They  were  lonely.  They 
didn't  have  much  amusement.  So,  when  times 
became  settled  once  more  and  the  farmers  had 
recovered  from  the  war,  the  Rolling  Show  came  in 
and  did  lots  of  business.  Only  we  didn't  call  it  a 
show  in  those  days,  nor  a  circus  —  no  siree!  The 
people  wouldn't  have  come  near  us.  Because  the 
preachers  thundered  against  circuses  and  all  such 
worldliness.  To  get  the  trade  of  the  church  people, 
we  called  it  a  "Menagerie"  and  "The  Great  Moral 
and  Educational  Exhibition." 

Putnam  and  Westchester  counties  were  head 
quarters  for  the  circus  business  in  early  days,  par 
ticularly  Star's  Ridge,  in  the  town  of  South-east,  and 
Purdy's  Station,  just  below  Croton  Falls.  I  guess 
the  reason  for  this  was,  because  those  two  counties 
are  just  north  of  New  York  City.  Being  a  beautiful 
farming  region,  with  Bridgeport,  Conn.,  and  Dan- 


22  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

bury  just  across  the  State  line,  this  region  became 
naturally  the  winter  quarters  for  the  New  York 
shows.  The  circuses  would  start  out  from  our 
section  each  spring,  and  come  back  to  us  in  the  fall, 
for  winter  quarters.  In  this  way  all  our  part  of  the 
State  got  to  talking  circus.  There  was  old  Hakaliah 
Bailey,  of  Somers  —  Somerstown  Plains  it  was, 
back  in  my  day  —  five  miles  below  Carmel.  He 
brought  over  the  first  elephant  ever  seen  in  the 
county.  "Old  Bett,"  he  called  her.  In  front  of  the 
tavern  there  in  Somers  --  the  Old  Elephant  Hotel 
they  called  it  —  you  can  see  even  yet  a  pedestal  with 
an  elephant  carved  on  top  of  it.  And  Seth  Howe, 
down  at  Turk's  Hill,  near  Brewsters',  when  he  came 
to  make  his  fine  summer  home  there,  had  stone 
animals  carved  and  stuck  around  the  grounds  here 
and  there.  Besides,  there  was  Gerard  Crane,  of 
Somers  —  everybody  has  heard  of  "Howe  and 
Crane's  Great  London  Circus."  Then  there  was 
Turner,  of  Bailey  and  Turner,  of  Danbury;  and 
later  on,  Phineas  Barnum,  from  Bridgeport.  Isaac 
Van  Amberg  also  started  his  menagerie  from  our 
section.  The  Weekses,  also  well-known  in  the  cir 
cus  business,  came  from  Carmel.  The  town  was 
full  of  circus,  back  in  those  early  days. 

So  when  Nate  Howe,  from  down  Brewsters'  way 

-  he  was  Seth  Howe's  brother  —  rounded  me  up 

one  day  as  I  was  on  one  of  my  calf-buying  trips,  and 

said  he  was  looking  for  a  smart  and  handy  young 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  23 

man  like  me,  to  be  a  driver  and  an  all-round  man 
with  his  show,  I  got  the  fever  and  started  in.  They 
put  me  at  all  sorts  of  work.  In  those  days  the  circus 
was  a  one-horse  affair  compared  to  what  it  has 
grown  to  now,  and  one  man  would  have  to  help 
out  in  a  dozen  different  kinds  of  work.  He  would 
be  a  mule-driver,  canvas-man,  gate-keeper  and 
feeder  of  the  animals,  sometimes  all  in  one  day. 
And  most  like  as  not,  now  and  then  he  would  have 
to  turn  in  and  help  out  with  the  clown's  part.  The 
clowns  in  those  days  had  speaking  parts.  They 
cracked  jokes  on  the  politicians  and  local  celeb 
rities  in  the  village  where  the  show  was  exhibiting, 
sang  the  ballad,  "Betsy  Baker/'  and  did  flipflaps. 
Then,  too,  since  there  wasn't  much  advertising  in 
those  days,  when  we  landed  in  a  town  and  while 
the  workmen  were  getting  the  canvas  up,  the  one 
of  us  who  was  acting  the  clown  for  the  day  would 
go  along  the  street,  togged  out  in  his  torn-fooleries, 
and  with  a  bugler  parading  in  front.  After  he  had 
got  a  crowd  around  him  he  would  mount  a  barrel 
head  in  front  of  the  village  tavern — about  the  time 
the  stage  arrived,  if  possible  —  and  from  that  stump 
would  announce  the  show,  tell  where  it  was  to  be 
found,  and  read  off  the  list  of  the  animals  that  would 
be  shown.  I  used  to  like  the  part  of  clown.  It 
was  fun  to  crack  jokes  and  set  the  boys  and  girls 
to  laughing.  I  always  did  like  a  good  joke,  anyhow. 
Inside  the  canvas  we  used  to  have  the  animals 


24  THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

arranged  along  one  side,  with  the  seats  for  the  people 
along  the  other  side.  The  performers'  ring  was  in  the 
middle,  between  the  two.  I  was  a  good  hand  with 
the  beasts,  because  I  knew  how  to  handle  them. 
With  the  hay  animals,  such  as  deer,  elk,  zebu-cows 
and  so  forth,  I  was  right  at  home,  having  been  raised 
on  a  farm.  Elephants  were  regarded  in  those  days 
as  dangersome;  but  my  farmer  training  with  horses 
and  horned  critters  made  me  now  a  good  man  for 
handling  risky  beasts  of  all  kinds.  Then,  when  it 
came  to  the  big  cats,  such  as  tigers  and  other  blood 
thirsty  varmints,  I  knew  how  to  get  butchers'  meat 
for  them  of  the  right  kind  and  in  the  right  way. 
Because  I'd  been,  so  to  speak,  in  the  butcher's  line 
also.  Upon  landing  in  town,  if  it  was  the  day  for 
feeding  them  —  we  used  to  feed  the  cats  only  every 
other  day,  so  as  to  keep  them  healthy;  because  in 
their  native  state  they  don't  eat  much  oftener  than 
that  —  I  would  look  up  some  butcher  and  get  him 
to  give  me  a  basket  of  bones  and  scraps  for  the  cats. 
I  would  pay  him  by  getting  the  clown  to  make 
mention  of  the  butcher's  name  in  some  flattering 
manner,  during  the  performance  that  afternoon. 
Sometimes  a  butcher  would  give  me  all  the  scrap 
meat  I  needed,  on  condition  that  he  wasn't  to  be 
hit  by  any  of  the  jokes  —  this  would  be  after  I'd 
hinted  to  him  that  the  clown  was  going  to  get  off 
some  good  jokes  at  those  merchants  in  the  town 
who  didn't  support  the  show.  I  knew  how  to  handle 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  25 

men,  as  well  as  animals.  And  being  smart  and 
handy  at  all  sorts  of  work,  I  was  promoted  higher 
and  higher;  finally  I  was  offered  a  part  ownership 
in  the  show.  Like  as  not  I  would  have  taken  it. 
But  just  then  something  happened:  I  got  religion. 
The  churches  were  not  very  numerous  in  those 
days.  So  when  a  preacher  wanted  to  get  up  a 
revival  in  a  part  of  his  circuit  away  from  his  meeting 
house,  he  would  use  a  grove,  if  it  was  summer  time, 
or  a  schoolhouse,  in  the  winter.  It  was  good  business 
policy  for  us  circus  people,  on  a  Sunday,  to  be  seen 
in  church  along  with  the  godly;  because  it  kind 
of  gave  respectability  to  our  business  —  it  helped 
out  the  "Great  Moral  Exhibition/'  on  our  show 
bills.  Never  shall  I  forget  that  day,  or  that  meeting, 
when  I  first  got  converted.  First  along  during  the 
meeting  I  was  cold  as  an  icicle  — just  a  looker-on. 
But  pretty  soon  the  religious  melodies  began  to  get 
hold  of  me.  Those  were  hymns  with  an  edge  to 
them,  in  those  days.  Seems  as  if  hymns  we  sing 
nowadays  aren't  anywheres  near  so  searching  power 
ful  as  those  we  used  to  hear: 

'Tremble,  my  soul,  and  kiss  the  sun; 
Sinner,  obey  thy  Saviour's  call; 
Else  your  damnation  hastens  on, 
And  hell  gapes  wide  to  wait  your  fall." 

I  tell  you,  tunes  like  that  don't  let  you  forget  them. 


26  THE   BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW 

They  keep  ringing  in  your  head,  no  matter  how 
many  years  have  passed  since.  In  those  days  they 
didn't  mince  matters: 

"Far  in  the  deep,  where  darkness  dwells, 
A  realm  of  horror  and  despair, 
Justice  has  built  a  dismal  hell 
And  laid  her  stores  of  vengeance  there. 

"Eternal  plagues  and  heavy  chains, 
Tormenting  racks  and  fiery  coals, 
And  darts  to  inflict  immortal  pains, 
Dyed  in  the  blood  of  damned  souls." 

I  got  religion  then  and  there.  When  the  preacher 
called  out,  "Hasten,  sinner,  to  be  wise,"  I  hastened. 
I  didn't  stop  to  ask  what  my  old  companions  would 
think  of  it.  (I  never  did  care  what  people  thought 
of  me,  anyhow.)  All  I  thought  of  was  to  get  to  the 
mourners'  bench.  And  so  it  wasn't  long  before  I 
wTas  up  there,  in  front  of  the  whole  congregation. 
I  told  them  I  had  a  fervent  desire  to  flee  from  the 
wrath  to  come. 

It  made  considerable  of  a  stir,  this  conversion  of 
mine.  For  a  circus  man  to  come  over  onto  the 
Lord's  side,  was  a  triumph  for  the  army  of  Gideon. 
The  brethren  gathered  around  me  with  great  joy. 
The  preacher  pressed  me  to  tell  the  congregation 
how  I  felt.  I  rose  and  spoke.  Words  always  did 
come  sort  of  easy  with  me  —  that  is,  the  plain, 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  27 

every-day  words.  Besides,  when  a  young  fellow 
has  practised  speaking  from  a  barrel-head  in  front 
of  a  village  tavern,  dressed  in  outlandish  fashion, 
and  telling  the  people  the  way  to  the  circus  grounds, 
he  isn't  going  to  be  scared  at  a  congregation  of 
people  inside  a  church.  So  on  the  present  occasion 
I  had  wondrous  liberty.  In  fact  I  gave  in  my  testi 
mony  with  such  acceptance  that  the  minister  came 
to  me  after  the  service  and  told  me  I  ought  to  become 
a  preacher.  This  was  a  side  of  the  matter  I  hadn't 
looked  at.  In  my  testimony  I  had  told  the  people 
that  "from  this  time  forth  I  was  going  to  serve  the 
Lord."  But  as  to  taking  up  preaching,  that  was  a 
different  matter.  There  isn't  much  chance  in 
preaching  to  get  rich.  So,  after  turning  it  over  in 
my  mind,  I  told  him  that  I  didn't  feel  any  call. 
And  I  went  back  to  the  drover's  business. 

I  was  glad  that  I  had  become  converted. 
Because  the  circus  business  didn't  promise  to  bring 
me  in  any  such  money  as  I  felt  I  could  make  buy 
ing  cattle,  now  that  I'd  saved  up  capital  enough  to 
start  in. 


IV 


NOW  began  the  real  work  of  my  life.  For 
until  this  time  I  had  been  earning  money 
hit  or  miss,  as  the  chance  offered.  I  was 
getting  nowhere.  But,  starting  now  into  the  drover's 
business  in  good  earnest,  I  found  my  main  bent. 
About  this  time  a  wave  of  prosperity  was  setting 
in  throughout  the  country.  The  nation  had  recov 
ered  from  the  effects  of  the  war.  The  banks  were 
resuming  specie  payments.  Trade  revived.  New 
York  City  was  calling  for  butcher's  meat.  Dur 
ing  the  war  she  had  had  a  long  fast,  so  to  speak. 
Now  she  began  to  eat.  Her  population  was  growing 
like  sixty.  City  Hall  Park  had  formerly  been  way 
up  town.  Now  it  was  getting  to  be  in  the  centre, 
with  houses  all  around.  To  keep  this  big  and 
growing  city  in  butcher's  meat  was  a  work  in  itself. 
That  was  where  we  drovers  got  a  living.  Putnam 
County  and  the  region  round  about  is  so  hilly  that 
it  is  fit  for  raising  stock  better  than  for  anything  else. 
A  steer  or  a  sheep  can  thrive  on  hillsides  where  a 
plough  would  tip  over.  Besides,  it  is  on  the  same 
side  of  the  Hudson  River  as  New  York,  and  only 
a  few  miles  above  it.  Thus  the  Harlem  Valley, 

28 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  29 

leading  down  through  Westchester  County,  soon 
became  a  channel  through  which  drovers  brought 
cattle  to  feed  the  thousands  of  hungry  mouths  in 
the  city  at  the  foot  of  Manhattan  Island. 

As  a  drover  I  had  trouble  first  along,  the  same 
as  when  I  went  into  the  calf  business,  because  the 
farmers  didn't  like  to  sell  me  their  cattle  on  credit. 
But  I  managed  to  get  around  them  in  one  way  or 
another.  I  would  ride  up  to  a  farmer's  house  — 
during  this  time  of  my  life  I  was  rarely  out  of  the 
saddle  except  to  eat  or  sleep,  occasionally  even  driv 
ing  cattle  at  night  to  save  time,  for  hunger  in  the 
belly  puts  spurs  to  the  heels  —  and,  instead  of  start 
ing  in  with  talk  about  buying,  I  would  say: 

"Hello,  Brother  So-and-So"  (the  news  of  how  I 
had  got  religion  ^helped  me  with  the  farmers);  "how 
are  you  off  for  fat  stock  ? " 

Upon  his  answering  that  he  had  a  pair  or  so  of 
fit  cattle,  I'd  say: 

"Well,  now,  I'm  taking  a  drove  into  the  city  next 
week.  If  you  say  so,  I'll  take  yours  along,  too, 
and  sell  them  for  you,  for  old  acquaintance's  sake. 
I  know  two  or  three  butchers  down  there  in  the 
city,  and  calculate  I  can  sell  those  critters  for  you 
at  a  top  price."  I  had  learnt  good  and  early  that 
if  you  haven't  got  honey  in  the  crock,  you  must  have 
it  in  the  mouth. 

The  plan  worked  fine.  That  is,  first  along.  I 
got  several  hundred  head  of  cattle  on  these  terms, 


30  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

and  they  seldom  failed  to  bring  a  good  price  in  the 
city.  So  that  before  long  I  had  scraped  together 
a  nice  little  capital.  To  be  sure,  the  farmers  who 
let  me  have  the  stock  on  these  terms  would  keep 
pestering  me  for  the  money.  But  I  put  them  off  with 
one  excuse  or  another.  Sometirnes  I  would  soften 
a  man's  anger  by  paying  him  part  of  what  was 
coming  to  him,  and  tell  him  he'd  have  to  wait  for 
the  balance  until  after  my  next  trip.  In  cases  where 
I  couldn't  quiet  a  creditor  in  this  way,  I  had  still 
another  shift,  for  I  always  was  a  resourceful  fellow. 
I  would  change  my  base  of  operations  to  another 
part  of  the  county,  so  far  away  that  the  farmers  I 
had  traded  with  the  last  time  couldn't  reach  me. 
Unfortunately,  word  would  sometimes  get  around 
ahead  of  me,  so  that  when  I'd  ride  up  to  a  farm 
house  and  try  to  get  cattle  without  paying  cash, 
I  would  be  turned  down.  There  was  Len  Clift, 
over  near  Brewsters',  for  one.  I  had  agreed  with 
him  on  the  price  of  a  calf.  Then,  as  I  was  about 
to  lead  the  critter  off,  I  told  him  he  would  have  to 
trust  me  a  few  days,  as  I  was  a  little  short  of  ready 
cash  just  at  that  moment. 

" Trust  you?"  said  he.  "Wouldn't  trust  you  no 
further  than  you  can  throw  a  hog  by  the  tail." 

I  didn't  get  riled  up.  Getting  riled  up  is  poor 
business.  A  man  isn't  fit  for  a  business  career  until 
he  has  learned  never  to  get  riled  up;  or  leastwise, 
never  to  show  it  on  the  outside,  even  if  he  is  all 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  31 

riled  up  inside.  I  sort  of  explained  the  thing  to 
Len  and  coaxed;  but  he  answered  a  plump  "No" 
every  time.  "You'll  get  the  calf  when  I  get  the 
money.  Not  a  minute  sooner." 

"Len,"  said  I,  finally,  when  I  saw  that  he  wasn't 
to  be  moved;  "you  won't  trust  me  for  the  price  of 
one  lousy  little  calf?  All  right.  But,  Len  Clift, 
the  time'll  come  when  I'll  have  money  enough 
to  buy  your  whole  farm.  Remeniber  what  I'm 
a-telling  you." 

And  the  time  did  come,  too.  After  I  had  made 
my  fortune  I  bought  his  farm  and  made  it  into  my 
country  seat.  I  have  got  my  family  burying  lot 
on  that  farm,  now.  "Drewsclift"  I  named  the 
place.  It's  that  beautiful  farm  just  on  the  other 
side  of  the  hill  over  from  Brewsters'  Village.  The 
burying  lot  is  out  by  the  willow  trees  across  the 
road  from  the  house,  down  in  the  meadows.  My 
parents  had  been  buried  in  old  Gilead  Burying 
Ground  at  Carmel.  I  got  the  bodies  dug  up  and  car 
ried  over  to  this  new  burying  lot,  so  I  could  establish 
a  family  cemetery.  When  a  man  makes  a  name 
for  himself,  he  wants  to  make  a  family  seat  to  go 
with  the  name. 

But  though  I  had  a  turn-down  once  in  a  while, 
such  as  this  one  from  Len  Clift,  I  found  many  a 
farmer  obliging  enough  to  sell  me  calves  and  cows 
and  steers  and  sheep  on  credit.  A  very  good  device, 
I  found,  was  first  to  haggle  with  the  farmer  over  the 


32  THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

price,  and  beat  him  down  to  the  lowest  penny.  For, 
strange  as  it  might  sound,  this  inclines  the  farmer 
to  trust  you.  You  see,  his  mind  figures  it  out  some 
thing  like  this: 

"That  there  drover  is  anxious  to  get  a  bottom 
figure,  because  he's  good  pay,  and  means,  when 
the  time  comes,  to  settle  up  promptly  and  penny 
for  penny.  He  wants  to  get  a  good  contract  because 
he  is  the  kind  of  a  fellow  to  live  up  to  it  word  for 
word.  To  be  sure,  he  is  a  tight  fellow  to  deal  with, 
but  at  least  he  is  a  safe  fellow,  and  so  I  guess  I'll 
let  him  have  this  pair  of  cattle  on  credit."  In 
these  ways,  working  now  one  plan  and  now  another, 
I  got  together  a  nice  little  sum  of  money. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  the  field  of  business 
for  drovers  was  widened  to  take  in  the  great  Mohawk 
valley.  The  city  on  Manhattan  Island  was  grow 
ing  so  fast  that  our  little  section  up  in  the  Harlem 
valley  couldn't  raise  cattle  fast  enough  to  supply 
her  butchers.  So  a  new  region  now  was  tapped, 
the  country  to  the  north,  across  the  Hudson.  For 
some  time  back  I  had  been  on  the  look-out  for  a 
new  place  to  move  to.  Change  of  pasture  makes 
fat  steers;  and  it's  sometimes  good  for  a  business 
man,  too.  So  I  got  to  going  on  trips  "out  West," 
as  we  called  it.  I  would  ride  up  north  and  cross 
over  into  the  region  around  Cherry  Valley  (that  is 
where  the  massacre  in  the  Revolutionary  War  by 
those  red  savages  took  place).  There  I  would  get 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  33 

a  drove  of  cattle  and  start  with  them  back  towards 
New  York  City.  We  had  regular  routes  which  we 
followed  with  our  droves.  The  taking  of  live  stock 
overland  to  the  New  York  market  had  got  to  be  an 
established  business  by  this  time,  with  regular  stop 
ping  places.  There  were  tavern-keepers  here  and 
there  along  the  route  who  catered  to  drovers.  They 
would  have  a  big  pasture  lot  alongside  the  tavern, 
divided  into  two  or  three  pastures  to  take  care  of 
several  herds  at  once.  When,  hot  and  sore  at  the 
end  of  a  day's  drive,  I  reached  one  of  these  taverns, 
the  inn-keeper  would  be  there  with  his  "Hello, 
Dan!  I  thought  you'd  be  coming  along  about  this 
time.  Been  expecting  you  these  two  weeks  or  more. 
Put  your  critters  out  in  the  orchard  lot.  The  pas 
ture  there  is  as  fine  as  a  fiddle  just  now;  and  come 
in  and  rest  your  bones.  Boy,  take  his  horse/' 

From  Cherry  Valley  we  would  strike  across  and 
into  the  old  Schoharie  Valley.  This  we  would 
follow  until  we  got  to  Middleburgh,  an  old  Dutch 
settlement.  We  hired  sloughters  here  to  drive  the 
cattle  (in  that  locality  they  call  a  low,  worth 
less  fellow  a  "sloughter").  There  we  would  put  up 
for  the  night  at  a  tavern  called  "The  Bull's  Head." 
I  mention  this  tavern  in  particular,  because  of 
another  "Bull's  Head  Inn"  which  I  will  tell  you 
about  later  on.  This  "Bull's  Head"  at  Middle- 
burgh  got  its  name  from  a  big  bull's  head  that  was 
painted  on  a  shed  opposite  the  tavern,  on  the  other 


34  THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

side  of  the  road,  to  show  that  drovers  were  taken 
care  of  there.  The  tavern  was  a  long,  plain,  two- 
story  house,  just  where  the  turnpike  crosses  a  creek. 
The  creek  flows  down  from  the  high  hills  back  of 
the  inn,  and  had  sweet  and  soft  water  at  every 
season  of  the  year.  The  cattle  used  to  like  the  water 
in  that  brook.  This  whole  valley  is  as  level  as  a 
barn  floor,  and  flowing  with  pastures. 

About  nine  miles  further  along  from  Middle- 
burgh  was  an  inn  kept  by  young  Brom  Scutt,  at  a 
place  called  Livingstonville.  He  had  a  sign  painted 
and  hung  up,  '* Drovers'  Holm."  (There  used  to 
be  a  saying  around,  that  that  sign  wasn't  spelled 
right;  but  we  drovers  never  set  much  store  by  spel 
ling;  we  were  a  mighty  sight  more  particular  about 
good  feed  and  water  in  the  pasture  back  of  the  tav 
ern,  than  for  good  spelling  on  the  sign-board  in 
front  of  the  tavern.)  From  there  we'd  go  on  to 
Preston's  Hollow  and  Cairo.  Then  to  Catskill  on 
the  Hudson  River.  Here  we'd  ferry  across  and 
then  would  be  on  the  New  York  City  side  of  the 
river.  (By  thus  skirting  close  around  the  Catskill 
Mountains,  we  had  saved  miles  and  miles  in  the 
journey  from  the  Mohawk  down  and  into  the  Harlem 
valley.)  Then  when  we  were  safely  on  the  east 
side  of  the  Hudson,  we  would  veer  in  a  south-easterly 
direction  into  Dutchess  County.  There  were  drovers' 
taverns  at  Dover  Wings,  Kurd's  Corners,  Haviland's 
Corners,  Sodom,  and  Somers.  Then  down  into 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW  35 

and  through  the  Harlem  Valley,  which  I  have  men 
tioned  before,  and  so  across  the  Harlem  River  by 
the  King's  Bridge.  Once  across  the  King's  Bridge, 
it  was  but  a  day's  travel  down  Manhattan  Island 
to  New  York. 


IT  WAS  about  this  time  in  my  life  that  I  got 
married  —  to  an  estimable  young  lady  in 
my  home  county.  For,  though  my  drover 
trips  were  now  taking  me  far  afield,  I  didn't  cut 
loose  from  Putnam  County  altogether.  Winter 
time  would  find  me  back  home.  You  can't  drive 
cattle  in  the  winter  time.  The  hard  roads  and 
sharp  ice  would  make  them  hoof-sore  very  quick. 
For  drovers,  winter  time  is  rest  time.  (For  that 
matter  midsummer  is  also  a  bad  time  for  the  drover 
business,  because  in  very  hot  weather  a  drove  of 
cattle  would  sweat  pounds  of  good  fat  off  their 
flanks  before  you'd  get  them  across  even  one  county.) 
For  drovers  springtime  and  fall  are  the  favourable 
seasons.  So  every  winter  would  find  me  back 
in  Carmel,  doing  what  I  could  at  odd  jobs  to  earn 
my  board,  until  the  roads  thawed  out  again  in  the 
spring. 

Winter  was  the  time  for  society  affairs  in  Carmel. 
I  never  was  much  of  a  hand  for  society,  being  more 
fitted  to  size  up  a  critter  and  buy  him  at  a  good  figure 
than  I  was  to  make  much  of  a  shine  in  social  circles. 
Still,  I  knew  how  to  spark  the  girls.  Of  a  winter's 

36 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  37 

night  at  Carmel  we  used  to  have  high  old  times  at 
sleigh  rides  and  the  mite  societies.  Then  there 
were  the  paring-bees — we  used  to  call  them  "apple- 
cuts  "  -  and  the  singing  school,  nut-cracking  parties, 
candy-pulls  —  what  not  ?  I  was  ratherish  slow  at 
getting  started  off  to  one  of  these  shindigs.  But 
once  there  and  into  the  thick  of  it,  I  could  carry 
my  part  with  any  of  them.  There  was  an  apple- 
cut  one  night  that  I  remember  as  well  as  I  do  my 
own  name.  We  were  playing  the  game  "Wink 
and  follow/'  After  a  while  my  turn  came  to  be  It. 
I  caught  one  of  the  girls  and  said:  "Laura,  now  I've 
got  you."  She  looked  me  straight  in  the  eyes  and 
said:  "Dan,  you're  not  going  to  kiss  me  unless 
you're  stronger  than  I  be.  And  I  know  you  be." 
I  was.  When  it  would  come  time  for  the  refresh 
ments,  I  used  to  step  forward  and  help  pass  the 
fried  cake,  new  cider,  apples  and  hickory  nuts, 
fine  as  anything. 

Well,  as  I  started  to  say,  I  got  married.  It  was 
more  or  less  this  way.  My  brother  Tom,  two  years 
before,  had  married  one  of  the  Mead  girls,  who 
lived  over  on  Turk's  Hill  (just  below  where  Seth 
Howe  built  his  fine  home  with  those  imitation 
animals  —  I  think  I've  wrote  about  it  further  back). 
Their  father  was  a  farm  labourer.  This  Abigail 
Mead,  my  brother's  wife,  had  a  sister  who  was 
younger,  just  as  I  was  younger  than  my  brother 
Tom.  Her  name  was  Roxana  —  Roxana  Mead. 


38     THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL  DREW 

(That's  where  the  name  "Mead  Hall/'  at  Drew 
Theological  Seminary,  comes  from.  That's  my 
wife's  picture  in  the  Hall.  But  I'm  getting  ahead 
of  my  story.)  What  more  natural,  than  that  I  and 
Roxana  should  get  acquainted.  When  your  brother 
has  got  a  wife,  and  that  wife  has  got  a  sister,  there 
are  going  to  be  no  end  of  chances  for  you  and  that 
sister  to  get  to  know  each  other.  And,  to  make  a 
long  story  short,  we  up  and  married.  She  was 
tall.  So  was  I.  Folks  said  we  made  a  fine-looking 
pair  as  we  stood  side  by  side  to  be  yoked  together 
by  the  preacher. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I  had  lost  my  religion  dur 
ing  these  drover  days.  It's  hard,  anyhow,  for  a 
cattle  dealer  to  keep  religion.  He  is  away  from 
home  too  much.  During  these  days  I  was  always 
on  the  go  —  never  was  one  of  your  lazy-bones; 
better  to  wear  out  shoes  than  sheets,  was  my  motto. 
And  when  you're  away  from  home  you  get  sort  of 
careless-like.  You  haven't  got  your  own  people 
around  to  kind  of  keep  you  straightened  up.  More 
than  that,  it  is  hard  to  keep  religion  when  you 
haven't  any  one  church  to  go  to.  In  these  days  I 
was  scurrying  from  pillar  to  post,  sleeping  out 
doors  or  in  barns,  farmhouses,  strange  taverns  - 
where  not  ?  And  the  upshot  was,  I  by  and  by 
drifted  from  the  means  of  grace.  I  back- 
slided. 

But  I  didn't  slip  back  so  far  as  to  be  unmindful 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  39 

of  my  lost  condition.  Now  and  then  I  would 
feel  some  movings  of  the  spirit  when  I  would 
pass  a  burying  lot,  particularly  if  it  was  at 
night.  The  white  stones  would  stand  out  so  ghost 
like,  it  would  sometimes  make  me  clutch  the  bridle 
to  keep  from  shivering.  And  the  old  words  I 
had  heard  so  often  in  meeting,  would  ring  in  my 
ears: 

"Hark,  from  the  tombs  a  doleful  sound; 
Mine  ears  attend  the  cry. 
Ye  living  men,  come,  view  the  ground 
Where  you  must  shortly  lie. 

"And  you,  mine  eyes,  look  down  and  view 
The  hollow,  gaping  tomb. 
This  gloomy  prison  waits  for  you 
Whene'er  the  summons  comes/' 

At  such  times  I  accounted  myself  a  mortal  worm, 
fallen  from  grace,  and  open  to  all  the  bolts  and  fiery 
darts  of  heaven.  From  which  it  can  be  seen  that, 
though  I  no  longer  had  the  joy  which  first  I  felt, 
but  had  lost  the  witness  of  my  adoption,  never 
theless  the  spirit  was  not  entirely  quenched 
within  me.  Accordingly,  when  a  revival  broke 
out  in  Carmel  at  about  the  time  of  which  I  am 
now  writing,  I  went.  The  sermon  that  night 
was  powerful  searching,  even  to  the  dividing 
asunder  of  the  joints  and  marrow.  And  before 


40  THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

the    meeting   came    to  an  end,    I   was   wondrously 
saved. 

"Glory  to  God  who  treads  the  sky, 
And  sends  his  blessings  through; 
Who  tells  his  saints  of  joys  on  high, 
And  gives  a  taste  below!" 

I  tell  you,  though  I'm  not  much  on  singing  myself, 
I  swung  in  on  the  rest  of  that  hymn: 

"Glory  to  God  who  stoops  his  throne, 
That  dust  and  worms  may  see  it; 
And  brings  a  glimpse  of  glory  down 
Around  his  sacred  feet." 

Besides,  it  was  a  help  in  business  for  me  to 
be  back  among  the  church  people;  because,  being 
married  now,  I  wanted  to  kind  of  settle  down  at 
Carmel.  But  there  were  a  number  of  farmers  there 
abouts  who  were  cold-shouldering  me,  saying  I 
owed  them  for  calves  and  steers.  And  as  they  were 
for  the  most  part  church  people,  I  was  glad  to  get 
religion  once  more  and  be  taken  back  into  good 
company. 

Now  I  began  to  be  a  person  of  consequence  in 
the  community.  I  was  married.  I  was  back  in 
the  church.  And,  what  is  more,  I  was  a  man  of 
money.  In  fact,  as  to  money,  I  was  piling  it  up 
pretty  fast  these  days.  For  New  York  seemed  to 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  41 

be  getting  hungrier  every  day  for  fat  steers.  'Most 
every  one  of  my  trips  there  helped  now  to  line  my 
jacket.  Besides,  at  about  this  time  I  hit  upon  a 
scheme  one  day,  as  I  was  going  to  the  city  with  a 
drove  of  cattle,  which  sluiced  a  lot  more  money  into 
my  pocket. 


VI 


FORMERLY  drovers  into  New  York  City  had 
to  take  their  droves  to  the  old  "  Bull's  Head, " 
which   was   on   the   Bowery   Lane,   not   far 
from  where   the   Bowery    Theatre    stands.     There 
the  butchers  from  the  stalls  down  on  Fulton  Street 
would  meet  the  drovers  coming  into  town  and  buy 
their  stock. 

But  there  was  a  butcher  by  the  name  of  Astor  - 
Henry  Astor,  his  name  was  —  who  got  into  the  habit, 
whenever  a  drover  would  be  reported  as  coming 
into  town,  of  leaving  his  brother  butchers  tippling 
at  the  Bowery  "Bull's  Head,"  skip  out  through 
the  back  door  of  the  tavern,  mount  his  horse,  ride 
up  the  Bowery  Road,  and  meet  the  drove  before 
it  got  down  to  where  the  other  butchers  were  waiting. 
Astor  would  stop  the  drove  and  pick  out  the  prime 
beeves  before  any  one  else  had  a  chance  at  them. 
By  and  by  the  other  butchers  got  on  to  his  trick  and 
also  began  to  ride  up  to  the  Bowery  to  meet  the 
herds.  In  this  way  a  new  "  Bull's  Head"  was  estab 
lished,  way  out  on  the  Boston  Road,  where  Twenty- 
sixth  Street  now  is.  (The  "Boston  Road"  is  now 
Third  Avenue.)  By  my  time  this  new  "Bull's 

42 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  43 

Head  "  had  got  to  be  the  cattle  market,  the  drovers' 
headquarters  for  the  city. 

Henry  Astor  —  I  got  to  know  him  well  —  was 
one  of  the  most  thriving  butchers  in  the  city.  He 
was  a  German.  He  had  come  over  in  the  Revolu 
tionary  War  as  a  sutler  following  the  Hessian  Troops. 
His  brother,  John  Jacob  Astor,  came  over  a  little 
later;  and  Henry  started  him  in  business  as  a  ped 
dler  of  knickknacks  among  the  trading  sloops  that 
were  tied  up  at  the  wharves.  It  was  in  this  way, 
I  guess,  that  John  Jacob  got  in  with  the  fur  traders, 
and  later  made  a  peck  of  money;  so  that  his  son 
gave  the  Astor  Library  there,  a  little  below  where 
my  "Bull's  Head"  tavern  was  located.  But  this 
is  getting  ahead  of  my  story. 

As  I  was  driving  my  herd  down  through  the 
Harlem  valley  one  day,  I  got  to  thinking  how  anxious 
Henry  Astor  always  was  to  get  fat  cattle.  (I  worked 
the  scheme  on  any  number  of  the  New  York  butchers 
as  time  went  on,  so  it  will  be  understood  that 
I'm  now  taking  Astor  merely  as  a  type,  because  he 
is  one  of  the  best-known  butchers  of  that  time  and 
because  I  got  to  know  him  perhaps  better  than  I 
did  the  others.)  As  I  was  riding  along,  suddenly 
I  hit  upon  the  idea.  And  with  me,  to  think  of 
doing  a  thing  means  to  begin  to  do  it. 

We  came  on  along  the  Bronx  River  by  old  man 
Williams's  bridge  and  across  Gun  Hill  Road,  which 
was  deep  and  heavy  —  almost  as  heavy,  I  reckoned, 


44  THE  BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

as  the  time  when  the  cannons  sunk  on  that  hill  up 
to  the  hubs  and  General  George  Washington  had 
to  leave  them  to  the  British.  Then  crossing  the 
Harlem  on  the  King's  Bridge,  I  brought  the  drove 
over  to  Harlem  Village  on  the  easterly  side  of  the 
Island,  about  where  Third  Avenue  now  crosses 
I25th  Street.  There  I  put  up  for  the  night,  since 
there  was  a  good  inn  with  several  pasture  lots  along 
side,  in  that  village.  I  told  my  cattle  boys  to  turn 
in  early  and  get  a  good  sleep,  for  we  would  be  in 
New  York  City  on  the  morrow. 

That  night,  when  all  the  rest  were  asleep  —  the 
cattle  boys  used  to  sleep  in  the  barn  on  the  hayloft  — 
I  went  out  to  the  drove  in  the  pasture  alongside 
the  tavern,  and  emptied  sacks  of  salt  on  the  ground, 
scattering  it  so  every  critter  could  get  some.  Then 
I  saw  that  all  the  bars  were  tight.  I  didn't  want 
any  of  them  to  get  out  and  drink.  I'll  explain  why 
when  I  get  along  a  little  further.  People  have 
heard  tell  of  the  expression,  "watered  stock,"  that 
is  used  in  Wall  Street.  This  is  where  that  there 
Wall  Street  term  came  from.  So  I  want  to  write  it 
down  in  proper  order. 

After  the  cattle  had  been  well  salted  and  the  bars 
all  safe  and  tight,  I  turned  in  and  went  asleep.  Next 
morning  I  got  up  good  and  early.  Didn't  need  any 
one  to  wake  me.  The  cattle  were  lowing  long  before 
the  sun  was  up,  as  though  they  wanted  something 
or  other  almighty  bad.  By  the  time  I  got  downstairs 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  45 

a  couple  of  cattle  boys  were  up  and  getting  ready 
to  let  down  the  bars,  to  lead  them  out  to  water. 

"Hey,  there,  what  are  you  louts  doing  ?"  I  called 
out.  "  Put  up  those  bars  right  away  and  bring  back 
that  critter  you've  let  out." 

"But,  boss,"  said  one  of  them,  "they're  choked 
for  water." 

"What  if  they  are  ?"  said  I.  "Would  you  poison 
these  critters  by  giving  them  water  they  aren't 
used  to  ?  These  cattle  are  fresh  from  the  country. 
This  here  is  an  island  surrounded  by  the  salt  sea. 
The  water  here  isn't  what  it  is  up  country.  We 
must  get  them  used  to  this  new  region  first.  I  guess 
I  know  my  business.  Not  one  of  these  critters  gets 
a  smitch  of  water  until  I  give  the  word.  D'ye  hear  ? 
Go  now;  get  a  bite  of  feed,  and  we'll  start  for  the 
city." 

Thus  I  kept  the  drove  from  water;  and  as  soon 
as  breakfast  was  over,  started  them  along  the  turn 
pike.  At  the  same  time  I  sent  word  ahead  by  a 
rider  to  Henry  Astor,  telling  him  that  I  was  coming 
with  some  prime  cattle  and  for  him  to  meet  me  at 
the  "Bull's  Head"  about  noon.  We  trudged  along, 
going  slow;  it  was  hot  as  mustard,  and  I  didn't 
want  to  sweat  any  meat  off  my  critters. 

Below  Yorkville  —  that's  the  village  that  used  to  be 
over  on  the  Boston  Road,  about  where  Eighty-sixth 
Street  now  crosses  it  —  was  a  little  stream  called 
the  Saw-Kill,  with  a  bridge  crossing  it.  It  was 


46  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

called  "Kissing  Bridge,"  because  couples  walking 
out  that  way  used  to  kiss  whenever  they  came  to 
the  bridge.  It  was  a  recognized  custom.  The 
bridge  itself  was  below  Yorkville,  not  far  from  where 
Seventy-seventh  Street  now  cuts  through.  It  was  a 
low  stone  bridge,  and  hardly  to  be  told  from  the  road 
itself.  But  I  guess  young  sparks  and  their  sweet 
hearts  never  failed  to  know  when  they  were  crossing  it. 
Well,  by  the  time  the  cattle  got  to  that  stream,  on 
the  drive  down  from  Harlem  Village,  they  were 
ail-fired  thirsty.  The  cattle  boys,  too,  were  glad 
to  see  the  water.  (We  used  to  call  these  boys 
"ankle  beaters,"  because  they  had  orders  when  they 
were  beating  the  cattle  not  to  strike  any  higher  than 
the  ankle,  for  fear  of  bruising  the  flesh  and  making 
it  unsound  for  market.)  The  boys  had  been  feel 
ing  for  the  poor,  suffering  critters,  and  now  were 
laying  out  to  give  them  a  good,  long  drink.  But 
I  had  other  fish  to  fry.  I  rode  back  to  where  they 
were.  In  taking  a  drove  along  the  turnpike  I  used 
to  ride  ahead  to  pick  out  the  road,  leaving  the  boys 
to  follow  behind  with  the  cattle.  I  said  to  them: 
"Boys,  line  up  along  the  road  there  by  the  bridge, 
or  those  critters  will  get  off  away  from  you." 

"Oh,  they'll  be  all  right,"  piped  up  one  of  the 
lads.  "They  smell  the  water  already,  and  will 
make  for  it  without  any  help  from  us." 

"Make  for  nothing!"  said  I.  I  knew  how  to 
put  command  in  my  tone,  when  it  was  herd-boys  I 


THE  BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW  47 

was  dealing  with.  "I  don't  want  one  of  those  crit 
ters  to  get  to  that  there  brook.  Didn't  you  hear 
me  tell  you  this  morning  about  the  poison  that's 
in  this  salt  air  and  this  island  water,  to  critters  that 
have  been  raised  in  fresh  water-regions  ?  Not  a  drop 
do  they  get,  and  pelt  them  with  dirt  clods  if  you've 
got  to.  Get  them  over  the  bridge  dry-shod." 

They  minded  me.  They  had  to.  They  had 
seen  me  plaster  mud  all  over  a  steer  when  he  didn't 
go  to  suit  me,  and  they  knew  I  could  do  it  to  them, 
too,  if  they  didn't  mind.  I  got  the  drove  over  the 
bridge  high  and  dry.  Pretty  soon  we  were  at  the 
"Bull's  Head."  I  told  the  boys  to  take  the  cattle 
into  the  pasture  pen  that  was  back  of  the  tavern, 
where  the  well  was.  Then  I  went  around  in  front 
to  the  tap-room,  as  soon  as  I  had  put  my  horse 
out,  to  look  for  Astor.  He  wasn't  come  yet,  so  I 
went  in  to  dinner.  Then  I  waited  for  him  on  the 
stoop  in  front  of  the  tavern,  alongside  the  Boston 
Road.  Pretty  soon  I  saw  him  come  up  the  turn 
pike,  riding  his  horse.  I  got  up  and  shook  him 
by  the  hand. 

"Got  my  message,  I  see,"  said  I,  as  he  was  getting 
off  his  horse.  "You  know  whom  to  come  to  when 
you  want  prime  stock." 

"Well,"  said  he.  "I  don't  know  as  I'm  buying 
much  to-day.  Market's  mighty  poor.  But  thought 
I  would  ride  up  for  friendship's  sake,  and  take  a 
look  at  your  critters."  (Being  a  German,  he  spoke 


48  THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

crooked  English.  It  was  curious  to  hear  him.  I 
wish  I  could  set  it  down  here  the  way  he  spoke  it.) 

I  was  in  hopes  he'd  go  into  the  tap-room  and  take 
something.  Because  when  you're  bargaining  with 
a  man  it's  always  easier  if  he's  got  something  inside. 
For  then  he  takes  a  rosy  view  of  things  and  doesn't 
stop  to  haggle  over  pennies.  Get  ale  inside  of  a 
man,  it  makes  him  speak  as  he  thinks.  But  Astor 
wouldn't  take  anything.  He  only  asked  the  land 
lord  for  a  drink  of  water.  Then  I  saw  that  I  had 
an  uphill  job  on  my  hands.  I  was  glad  that  he  hadn't 
come  in  a  gig  and  brought  his  wife  along,  because 
then  I'd  have  had  two  of  them  against  me;  and  Hen 
Astor's  wife,  Dorothy,  was  a  money-maker,  just 
like  himself.  She  used  to  help  him  in  the  slaughter 
house,  doing  up  butcher's  small  meats  —  that  is, 
the  tongue,  liver,  kidneys  and  such  like;  she  helped 
make  him  the  rich  man  that  he  got  to  be  after  a 
while.  I  knew  that  with  Hen  Astor  by  himself  I 
was  going  to  have  my  hands  full.  But  I  went  to 
it  with  a  will.  I  asked  him  to  wait  for  me  a  minute 
while  I  stepped  out  to  see  if  my  horse  was  being  fed. 

With  this  as  an  excuse,  I  skipped  around  to 
where  my  cattle  boys  were.  I  said:  "My  lads,  I 
guess  those  critters  are  used  to  the  climate  by  this 
time,  and  can  now  drink  in  safety.  Buckle  to  and 
give  them  all  the  water  they  can  drink." 

You  should  have  seen  them  get  to  work.  Cattle 
boys  get  real  fond  of  their  critters.  A  drover  likes 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  49 

his  critters  because  they  mean  money  to  him. 
"Ankle-beaters "  often  get  to  like  them  out  of  real 
affection.  And  you  should  have  seen  the  cattle  go 
at  it,  too.  You'd  have  thought  they'd  not  had  a 
drink  for  an  age.  The  salt  had  done  its  work. 
A  quart  of  salt  to  every  pair  of  cattle  is  a  fair  allow 
ance;  in  the  present  case  I  had  allowed  them  a  little 
more  than  that.  So  that  now  they  sucked  the  water 
in  like  sponges.  Do  the  best  they  could,  the  boys 
couldn't  keep  the  trough  full.  The  steers  fairly 
fought  with  each  other  for  a  drink.  So  I  told  off 
a  couple  of  the  boys  to  take  part  of  the  herd  over  to 
another  pasture  across  the  road,  where  there  was  a 
big  pump,  and  start  that  going  too.  Then,  when 
I  saw  that  the  thing  was  nicely  under  way,  I  went 
back  to  the  tavern,  where  Astor  was  waiting  for  me. 
"It  beats  all  how  these  hostlers  need  looking 
after,"  said  I.  "If  I  hadn't  gone  out  there  to  the 
barn  they'd  have  starved  that  mare  of  mine.  A 
thimbleful  of  oats  no  bigger  than  that,  as  true 
as  you  live,  that's  what  they  were  giving  my 
mare.  And  she  as  big  as  two  ordinary  horses.  But 
how  are  you,  anyhow?"  And  I  seated  myself 
beside  him  on  the  stoop.  I  took  a  fresh  chew  of 
tobacco,  and  offered  him  some.  I  thought  it  a  good 
plan  to  sit  and  visit  for  a  spell.  It  gets  your  cus 
tomer  into  a  neighbourly  frame  of  mind;  and  then, 
too,  in  this  present  case  it  would  give  my  boys  time 
for  the  \vatering. 


50  THE   BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

"Fm  not  so  very  chirpy,"  he  grumbled.  "How 
are  you  ?" 

"Fine  as  a  riddle,"  said  I;  "and  what's  ailing 
you?" 

"All  kinds  of  troubles,"  he  went  on.  "The  life 
of  a  cattle  butcher,  Dan,  isn't  what  it  used  to  be. 
There  are  so  many  in  the  business  nowadays.  And 
housewives  come  to  my  stall  there  in  the  Fulton 
Market  and  buy  my  best  meats  —  top  slices,  no 
second  cuts  for  them  —  and  then,  when  I  or  Doro 
thy  go  to  see  them,  they  won't  pay  their  bills.  And 
the  stall  is  getting  so  crowded,  the  hucksters  and 
salad  women  have  been  signing  a  paper  against 
me,  because,  they  say,  I've  built  my  stall  across  the 
whole  end  of  the  market,  and  have  crowded  them 
out  under  the  eaves,  where  they're  exposed  to  the 
sun  and  weather.  I'm  a  licensed  victualler  —  I 
guess  I've  got  some  rights  there.  And  then,  too, 
the  city  fathers  these  days  are  getting  so  pernickety. 
You  remember  the  market  used  to  be  on  Maiden 
Lane  —  it  was  built  over  a  running  stream  that 
was  used  as  a  city  sewer.  Very  handy  for  us, 
because  we  could  drop  the  swill  and  such  like  right 
through  a  hole  in  the  floor.  But  the  City  Board 
didn't  do  anything  else  but  talk  everlastingly  about 
'nauseous  and  pestilential  vapours,'  and  kept  it  up 
till  we  moved  the  market  up  onto  Fulton  Street. 
And  now  they're  getting  more  pernickety  still. 
Why,  Dan,  since  the  small-pox  came  they  are  getting 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW  51 

so  they  won't  allow  our  hogs  to  run  in  the  streets 
any  longer/* 

"Heinrich  Astor!"  said  I  (he  liked  to  be  called 
by  his  German  name);  "what  won't  they  be  order 
ing  next  ?  Pigs  in  the  street  are  the  best  scavengers 
a  city  can  have.  You  mark  what  I  tell  you,  Hen; 
if  they  shut  the  pigs  up,  the  gutters  will  get  so  full 
of  slops  and  stuff,  there  won't  be  any  living  inside 
the  city  limits.  Why,  it  would  take  a  herd  of  swine 
to  clean  up  what  your  slaughter-houses  alone  dump 
into  the  street." 

"There  you  are  again,"  he  broke  in.  He  was 
getting  riled  up.  "That  fussy  old  board  of  city 
fathers  have  gone  and  passed  another  ordinance, 
that  butchers  mustn't  empty  any  more  refuse  in 
the  street  gutters.  So  now  we  have  to  cart  the  blood 
and  guts  way  over  to  the  river.  I'd  like  to  know  how 
dogs,  to  say  nothing  of  the  hogs,  are  going  to  get  a 
living  inside  the  city  limits,  if  this  sort  of  thing  keeps 
on.  And  without  dogs,  where  would  we  be,  at  night  ? 
Why,  just  the  other  day  a  farm  below  me  on  the 
Bowery  Road  lost  no  end  of  chickens  by  the  foxes." 

"That  loss  of  poultry  will  make  more  call  for 
cow  meat,"  said  I;  "and,  Hen,  between  you  and 
me,  I've  brought  you  some  of  the  fittest  beeves 
this  trip  that  ever  set  foot  on  Manhattan  Island. 
We'll  step  out  and  take  a  look,  if  you  say  so."  I 
knew  by  this  time  that  the  boys  would  be  through 
with  the  watering.  So  we  went  out. 


52  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

Sure  enough,  when  we  got  out  into  the  pasture, 
you  couldn't  see  a  sign  of  a  water-pail.  And  there, 
as  plump  and  fat-looking  as  a  man  ever  saw,  stood 
the  critters.  I  noticed  out  of  the  tail  of  my  eye 
that  Astor  got  interested  all  to  once. 

"  There  are  two  or  three  good-sized  ones  in  the 
bunch,"  he  remarked.  "I  suppose  you  want  to 
sell  the  drove  at  a  lump  sum.  I  wasn't  calculating 
on  buying  any  stock  to-day.  But  seeing  it's  you, 
I  might  be  able  to  make  an  offer  for  the  drove  as  a 
whole  —  say,  at  so  much  a  critter." 

"No,"  said  I,  "they  go  by  the  pound,  this  trip. 
Prime  cattle  such  as  these  take  a  sight  of  time  and 
fodder  to  fatten.  I've  had  to  get  this  herd  together 
one  at  a  time,  the  very  best  from  a  hundred  farms. 
But  it's  worth  the  pains,"  I  added,  "when  a  fellow 
can  bring  to  market  a  drove  like  this."  He  punched 
his  thumb  into  two  or  three  of  the  critters,  and 
found  them  firm  and  solid. 

"Tolerable  good,"  said  he,  "tolerable  good. 
But  I'm  afeared  most  of  them  will  be  tough.  I 
suppose,  though,  I  could  use  them  up  for  soup  meat. 
Tell  you  what  I'll  do.  I'll  give  you  two  and  a 
quarter  a  pound  just  as  they  stand,  and  for  one  or 
all." 

I  said  that  the  figure  I  had  set  for  this  drove  was 
four  cents.  He  gave  a  snort  and  started  towards 
the  tavern  as  though  disgusted.  I  didn't  make  any 
move  to  call  him  back;  I  knew  that  when  a  butcher 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW  53 

finds  what  he  thinks  to  be  a  drove  of  fat  cattle,  he 
isn't  going  to  give  up  at  the  first  crack.  He  likes  the 
thought  of  n  nice,  fat  carcass  hanging  from  the 
hooks  at  his  stall  in  the  market.  So,  pretty  soon, 
back  he  came. 

"Donner  and  Himmel!"  he  exclaimed,  and  he 
was  red  in  the  face.  "You  drovers  take  us  towns 
people  for  suckers.  I'll  give  you  two  and  a  half, 
and  not  a  speck  more.  You  can  take  it  or  leave 
it.  Anyhow,  I'm  expecting  another  drover  in  from 
Long  Island  next  week,  and  only  came  up  to-day 
to  just  kind  of  look  around." 

I  met  him  by  coming  down  half  a  cent.  I  hadn't 
thought  for  a  minute  that  I  could  get  the  four-cent 
price  I  had  named.  I  had  mentioned  that  figure 
in  order  to  have  something  to  back  away  from, 
when  we  got  down  to  business.  You  must  ask 
much  to  get  a  little. 

He  snorted  off  once  more;  but  he  didn't  get  so 
far  this  time.  ;'Two  and  three  quarters,"  said 
he,  coming  back.  "And  there  isn't  a  cent  in  it 
for  me  at  that  figure,  so  help  me  Gott!" 

I  told  him  the  very  best  I  could  do  was  three  and  a 
quarter,  and  only  made  it  that  figure  because  he  was 
willing  to  take  the  whole  drove.  "It's  the  beneath- 
enest  price  I  ever  saw  offered  for  choice  stock  such 
as  these,"  said  I.  "It  costs  money,  Hen,  to  pump 
corn  into  a  heifer  until  her  loins  stand  out  like  the 
hams  on  a  hog." 


54  THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

He  backed  away.  We  dickered  a  spell  longer. 
Finally  we  hit  on  a  flat  three-cent  price.  The  cattle 
were  driven  on  the  scales.  (They  weighed  up  fine, 
as  you  can  believe.)  He  paid  over  the  money,  and 
took  them  off  down  to  his  slaughter-pen,  not  far  from 
the  Bowery.  I  was  happy,  and  he  went  off  happy, 
too.  Because  a  butcher  likes  to  get  heavy  critters. 
To  be  sure  they  cost  him  more,  but  fat  beef  in  a 
butcher's  stall  goes  like  hot  cakes,  where  stringy 
joints  wouldn't  sell  at  all.  So  it  was  what  I  call  a 
good  bargain,  seeing  that  both  of  us  were  pleased. 

It  can  be  seen  now  what  a  lucky  thought  it  was  for 
me  —  that  salting  device.  The  salt  cost  but  a  few 
pennies  a  bag,  and  by  means  of  it  nigh  onto  fifty 
pounds  had  been  added  to  the  selling  weight  of  every 
critter  in  the  drove  —  a  full-grown  critter  will 
drink  that  weight  of  water  if  you  get  her  good  and 
thirsty.  Thus  I  took  in  as  my  profits  on  this  trip 
as  fine  a  penny  as  a  man  could  ask. 


VII 


I  FELT  so  rich  from  my  stock-watering  deal 
that  I  stayed  at  the  "Bull's  Head"  tavern 
a  spell.  And,  a  day  or  two  after  the  business 
with  Astor,  I  started  down  to  the  city  to  see  about 
getting  a  new  saddle.  My  old  one  was  so  worn 
that  the  stuffing  was  coming  out;  for,  although  I 
had  been  making  money  for  some  years  back,  I 
hadn't  felt  like  spending  any  more  of  it  than  I  could 
help.  My  idea  in  those  days  was:  Better  a  hen 
to-morrow  than  an  egg  to-day.  Small  savings,  if 
you  keep  them  up  long  enough,  mean  big  savings 
by  and  by.  If  a  fellow  is  going  to  be  rich,  he  must 
get  money  working  for  him  early  in  life.  A  swarm 
of  bees  in  May  is  worth  a  load  of  hay;  but  a  swarm 
in  July  isn't  worth  a  fly. 

Now,  however,  I  felt  rich  enough  to  afford  a  new 
saddle.  So  I  mounted  my  mare  and  started  down 
to  New  York.  I  went  by  the  Bowery  Lane.  I  had 
to.  That  was  the  only  road  into  the  city  in  those 
days.  I  knew  that  it  would  take  me  past  Hen  Astor's 
house,  and  I  had  felt  it  would  be  best  not  to  see 
him  for  a  spell,  if  I  could  help  it.  But  there  wasn't 
any  other  way  into  the  city.  The  Broad  Way, 

55 


56  THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

which  is  now  the  main  thoroughfare  right  through 
the  middle  of  the  island,  hadn't  been  laid  out  then. 
The  place  where  that  road  now  runs  was  swamp 
and  low  land-  "the  Lispenard  Meadows"  we 
called  it.  A  farmer  who  bought  a  tract  of  it  was 
joshed  a  good  deal,  his  friends  all  saying  it  would 
be  a  good  farm  for  raising  a  fine  crop  of  frogs.  So 
I  rode  boldly  down  the  Bowery  Lane. 

But  just  before  I  got  to  Henry's  place,  I  thought 
better  of  the  matter  and  turned  off  to  the  right,  across 
lots.  I  found  a  lane  there  that  led  into  the  meadows, 
these  being  dry  enough  this  time  of  the  year  for 
safe  walking  for  the  horse.  The  Broad  Way  by 
this  time  had  run  up  from  the  city  a  little  beyond 
and  across  the  stream  where  Canal  Street  now  is. 
(Canal  Street  got  its  name  when  they  dug  out  that 
stream  and  made  a  good-sized  canal  there,  in  order 
to  drain  the  swamp  and  the  Collect  Pond  just  above 
City  Hall  Park.)  I  calculated  on  reaching  this  road 
across  lots,  and  then  following  it  down  into  the  city. 
It  took  me  some  time  to  reach  it,  because  I  had  to 
wind  in  and  out  to  dodge  the  water-holes.  But  I  got 
out  onto  the  Broad  Way  road  at  last.  Then  I  was 
all  right;  for  in  dry  weather  it  was  from  here  on  a 
good  thoroughfare  into  the  city  —  almost  as  hard 
and  safe,  in  fact,  as  the  Bowery  Road.  It  crossed 
the  Canal  Street  Brook  on  a  low  stone  bridge.  Just 
beyond  was  the  Stone  Bridge  Tavern.  I  knew  the 
locality,  because  around  this  tavern  was  a  horse- 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL    DREW  57 

exchange,  where  old  plugs  and  broken  nags 
were  sold  to  the  street  hawkers  and  fish-men 
of  the  city.  Just  above  what  is  now  White  Street 
I  had  to  dismount;  for  there  was  a  pair  of  bars  at 
this  point  to  keep  the  cattle  of  the  Lispenard  Mead 
ows  from  getting  into  the  city.  My  mare  wasn't 
enough  of  a  hunter  to  jump  the  bar;  and  I  wasn't 
anxious  for  it,  either.  Because  a  drover,  if  he  is 
going  to  lay  up  money,  doesn't  have  any  time  to 
break  in  hunters,  or  do  much  in  the  hunting  busi 
ness  himself,  either.  So  I  led  her  through,  backed 
her  once  more,  and  was  soon  down  to  New  York. 

Reaching  Wall  Street,  I  hitched  my  mare  to  a  lamp 
post  and  started  out  to  the  saddler's.  There  were 
a  number  of  good  hotels  down  in  New  York  at  this 
time,  with  horse  sheds  attached,  such  as  the  Franklin 
House,  over  on  the  Broad  Way,  corner  of  Dey  Street, 
and  the  Park  Place  Hotel,  corner  of  Park  Place. 
But  the  hostlers  in  those  city  hotels  charged  a  fee 
even  for  tying  your  horse  under  the  shed.  It  has 
always  been  my  motto:  Never  feel  rich,  even  though 
you  have  money  in  every  bank  in  town.  There 
are  some  young  men  so  spendthrifty,  they  eat  the 
calf  while  yet  inside  the  cow.  But  not  I.  In  those 
days  a  lamp-post  was  just  as  safe  a  place  for  a  quiet 
mare  as  a  hotel  shed;  and  was  good  enough  for  me. 

I  soon  found  that  my  dodging  of  Astor's  place  on 
the  Bowery  had  been  in  vain.  Because,  as  I  was 
walking  down  towards  "Dirty  Lane"  -that's  the 


58  THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

name  that  used  to  be  given  to  South  William  Street  — 
I  happened  to  look  back  and  spied  him  a-hurrying 
after  to  catch  up  with  me.  He  must  have  seen  me 
cut  across  lots  to  dodge  going  by  his  house;  or 
maybe  he  had  come  over  from  his  stall  at  the  Fulton 
Market  onto  Wall  Street,  and  had  chanced  to  spy 
me.  At  any  rate,  there  he  was,  a-following  after. 
I  didn't  want  to  meet  him  just  then  and  there;  I 
could  see  that  he  was  in  a  temper.  So  I  turned  the 
corner  into  William  Street,  and  stepped  into  a  tav 
ern  that  was  not  far  down  the  street.  I  guess  I 
wasn't  quick  enough;  for  a  minute  or  two  later 
Astor  came  in  the  front  door  also. 

"Hey,  you,"  said  he,  busting  in  through  the  door 
and  puffing  hard,  "You  tamned  Dan  Drew."  (Hen 
Astor's  English  was  more  crooked  than  ever  when 
he  was  excited.)  "I  vant  to  speak  yust  one  word 
mit  you,  you  - 

But  I  didn't  wait.  It  never  pays  to  argue  with  a 
man  when  he's  excited,  and  Hen  now  was  very 
red  in  the  face;  I  saw  at  a  glance,  that  he  was  in  no 
state  of  mind  to  talk  a  matter  over  calmly.  So  I 
hurried  on  through  the  tavern  and  out  by  the  back 
door.  There  I  cut  over  onto  the  other  street  through 
a  lane  before  he  could  see  which  way  I  went,  and 
so  lost  him. 

I  decided,  after  thinking  the  matter  over,  that  I 
wouldn't  stay  in  the  city  to  get  a  saddle  this  trip, 
after  all.  So  I  went  back  to  my  mare,  unhitched 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW  59 

her,  and  was  soon  back  to  the  "Bull's  Head,"  safe 
and  sound.  Then  I  rode  away  to  Putnam  County 
for  another  drove  of  cattle. 

The  saying,  "selling  watered  stock,"  has  now  got 
to  be  well-known  in  the  financial  world.  So  I've 
wrote  down  in  this  paper  about  the  affair  of  salting 
my  critters.  Some  time  later  I  became  an  operator 
in  the  New  York  Stock  Exchange;  I  hung  out  my 
shingle  on  Broad  Street.  And  the  scheme  was  even 
more  profitable  with  railroad  stocks.  If  a  fellow 
can  make  money  selling  a  critter  just  after  she  has 
drunk  up  fifty  pounds  of  water,  what  can't  he  make 
by  issuing  a  lot  of  new  shares  of  a  railroad  or  steam 
boat  company,  and  then  selling  this  just  as  though 
it  was  the  original  shares  ?  But  for  this  drover 
time  in  my  life,  these  smaller  profits  seemed  mighty 
big. 

For  I  didn't  let  the  salting  scheme  rest  with  only 
the  one  trial.  After  I  got  back  to  Putnam  County 
I  lost  no  time  in  getting  another  drove  together 
and  hurrying  it  back  to  the  city.  Astor  didn't  care 
to  buy  of  me  this  second  trip.  Not  that  he  kept 
mad  for  any  length  of  time.  He  was  the  kind  of 
a  fellow  to  cool  off  after  a  few  weeks.  On  this, 
my  next  trip  to  the  city,  I  found  him  as  civil  as  I 
could  wish.  But  he  wouldn't  buy  my  cattle  —  made 
a  number  of  excuses.  He  showed  his  friendly  spirit, 
however,  by  introducing  me  to  one  of  his  fellow 
butchers  in  the  Fulton  Market;  so  that  on  the  present 


60  THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

trip  I  dealt  with  this  other  butcher.  In  fact,  I 
found  that  the  stock-watering  plan,  while  a  money 
maker,  had  certain  drawbacks.  Because  from  now 
on  it  compelled  me  to  deal  with  a  different  butcher 
'most  every  trip.  But  that  wasn't  so  bad  as  it 
might  seem.  For  there  were  lots  of  butchers  in  the 
city;  and  in  most  cases  I  found  that  the  butcher 
Fd  dealt  with  the  last  time  was  willing  to  introduce 
me  to  one  of  his  competitors,  as  a  drover  that  handled 
choice  stock.  I  took  in  profits  with  a  big  spoon. 


VIII 

BY  THIS  and  other  devices,  one  way  or  another, 
I  had  by  this  time  got  to  be  tolerable  well 
off.  In  fact  I  had  become  known  as  one 
of  the  richest  drovers  that  brought  cattle  to  the 
New  York  market.  When,  therefore,  not  long  after, 
the  "Bull's  Head"  tavern  found  itself  without  a 
proprietor,  what  more  natural  than  that  I  should 
step  in  and  take  the  position  ?  I  hadn't  had  any 
experience  as  an  inn-keeper;  but  I'd  had  no  end 
of  dealings  with  inn-keepers.  And  I  reckoned  that 
a  man  who  could  make  money  taking  care  of  droves, 
could  also  make  money  taking  care  of  drovers.  So 
I  dickered  with  the  people  in  charge,  and  got  the 
place.  I  left  Putnam  County  and  moved  down  to 
the  "Bull's  Head" 

By  this  time  there  was  a  little  settlement  growing 
up  around  the  tavern,  known  as  "  Bull's  Head 
Village. "  My  tavern  was  the  centre  of  this  village. 
So  that,  although  we  were  some  miles  out  from  the 
city,  we  were  never  lonely  for  a  minute.  It  was 
the  centre  of  the  New  York  live-stock  market.  Dro 
vers  came  to  the  "Bull's  Head"  from  York  State, 
Connecticut,  Jersey,  and  Long  Island,  bringing  their 

61 


62  THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

droves  with  them.  Around  my  tavern  there  were 
cattle  pens  for  the  care  of  fifteen  hundred  head  of 
cattle  at  once.  There  is  nothing  but  the  horse- 
market  there  now  to  show  what  the  place  used  to 
be.  New  York's  cattle  yards  have  moved  since 
then.  They  moved  from  the  "Bull's  Head,"  first 
up  to  Forty-second  Street;  then  to  Ninety- fourth 
Street;  and  now  they  are  moving  over  to  Jersey 
City.  But  in  my  time  there  wasn't  a  minute  in 
the  day  when  you  couldn't  hear  there  the  moo  of  a 
heifer,  the  bleat  of  a  lamb,  or  the  neigh  of  a  horse. 
Pretty  soon  a  slaughter-house  was  built  across  the 
post-road  and  below  the  lane  which  is  now  26th 
Street.  Here  and  there,  also,  were  little  houses  for  the 
hired  men  to  live  in.  There  was  a  store  for  groceries 
and  general  merchandise.  All  in  all,  quite  a  village 
was  growing  up  around  the  place.  '  And  I,  as  propri 
etor  of  the  "  Bull's  Head,"  was  the  king-pin  of  it  all. 
Not  that  I  owned  the  tavern.  That  belonged  to 
the  Peter  Lorillard  family.  They  had  had  a  farm 
where  the  "  Bull's  Head"  stood,  back  in  Revolutionary 
times.  General  George  Washington  stayed  at  the 
house  once  and  took  a  meal  of  victuals  there.  When 
finally  the  "Bull's  Head"  tavern  was  built,  the 
mahogany  table  from  the  Lorillard  house  was  put 
into  the  tavern  as  a  part  of  the  furniture.  When  I 
had  any  guests  that  I  wanted  to  honour,  I  would 
set  them  at  that  table  for  dinner  and  tell  them  how 
General  George  Washington  had  eaten  from  it. 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  63 

The  tap-room  of  the  tavern  was  on  the  corner. 
This  was  also  the  office  and  all-around  room.  The 
dining  room  was  across  the  hall,  and  looked  out 
onto  the  post-road,  which  is  now  Third  Avenue. 
People  eating  in  the  dining  room  could  peer  out 
through  the  windows  and  see  riders  and  vehicles 
passing  well-nigh  all  the  time,  because  this  was  the 
turnpike.  It  was  the  highroad  to  Boston.  In 
that  day  all  the  through  travel  to  New  York  City 
went  by  my  tavern.  Back  in  my  time  the  tavern  was 
seated  on  a  hill,  and  you  had  to  go  down  in  order 
to  reach  the  road.  When  the  city  streets  were  put 
through,  this  hill  was  cut  down  and  a  ground  floor 
put  in  underneath. 

Out  in  the  hall,  a  wide  staircase  with  a  mahogany 
railing  led  to  the  second  floor.  Upstairs  the  hall 
ways  were  narrow  and  crooked.  A  fellow  could 
get  lost  in  them.  In  fact  these  winding  passageways, 
I'm  sorry  to  say,  were  the  cause  of  a  good  many 
fights.  The  "Bull's  Head"  was  noted  for  its  fine 
liquors,  such  as  hot  "Tom  and- Jerry,"  toddy,  and 
such  like.  A  drover  starting  upstairs  for  bed,  after 
spending  half  the  night  in  the  tap-room  drinking  or 
playing  "crack-loo,"  would  often  get  lost  upstairs 
in  trying  to  find  his  room,  and  sometimes  would 
get  so  turned  around  that  he  couldn't  even  find  his 
way  back  to  the  office.  Then  from  somewheres  in 
an  upper  hall  he'd  holler  out  loud  enough  to  wake 
the  dead.  He'd  get  mad  as  a  Durham  bull.  He 


64  THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

would  call  for  some  one  to  come  and  show  him  where 
he  was.  The  sleepers  near-by  would  turn  out  and 
cuss  him  for  making  such  a  noise;  then  the  fat 
would  be  in  the  fire.  Sometimes,  instead  of  bellow 
ing  for  help,  the  man,  when  he  found  that  he  was 
lost,  would  go  into  the  first  room  he  came  to  (since 
we  didn't  have  keys  and  locks  in  those  days),  swear 
that  it  was  his,  and  set  to  turn  the  other  fellows  out. 
Which  would  also  result  in  a  hell-roaring  fight. 
In  truth,  the  hallways  were  so  crooked  that  I  have 
known  of  a  perfectly  sober  man  to  come  downstairs 
of  a  morning,  after  a  sight  of  muffled  groans  and 
swear-words  from  somewhere  upstairs,  wipe  the 
sweat  from  his  forehead,  and  out  with  a  "Mighty 
Lord,  but  it's  good  to  get  here;  I  thought  I  never 
would  find  that  stairway."  Now  and  then  of  a  night 
I'd  have  a  guest  arrive  at  the  inn  late.  And  then 
I'd  have  to  light  a  candle,  take  him  upstairs,  and 
put  him  in  with  one  of  my  boarders.  This  would 
sometimes  make  the  boarder  mad.  He'd  cuss 
around  in  high  fashion  because  I  hadn't  let  him  know 
beforehand  who  was  going  to  be  his  bedfellow.  As 
if  I  could  help  it  that  all  of  my  rooms  were  full, 
and  another  guest  arrived.  Now  and  then  I  used 
to  have  a  fight  on  my  hands  from  this  cause,  some 
of  my  boarders  were  that  unreasonable. 

There  was  a  big  wheat-field  behind  the  tavern, 
and  not  far  beyond  that  a  grove  of  trees.  Being  on 
the  post-road,  picnic  parties  used  to  drive  out  from 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW  65 

the  city  and  spend  the  day  in  the  grove.  Cato's 
Tavern,  further  up  by  Yorkville,  was  more  of  a 
resort  for  society  people  of  the  city,  in  their  drives 
into  the  country.  But  for  turtle  feasts,  turkey 
shoots  and  such  like  affairs,  the  "Bull's  Head"  was 
the  leading  resort.  In  the  fall  of  the  year,  around 
Thanksgiving  time,  we  could  put  up  a  placard  telling 
we  were  going  to  run  a  turkey  shoot  on  such  and 
such  a  date;  and  there  would  be  going  on  to  a  hundred 
men  there  when  the  time  came.  I  would  advertise  it 
on  the  bill  something  like  this: 

Resting  shot  at  40  yds., 10  cts. 

Off-hand  shot,  at  40  " 5   « 

Resting  shot  at  30  15  ' 

Off-hand  shot  at  30     " 10  " 

Any  shot  drawing  blood,  takes  the  bird. 

Perhaps  these  prices  for  shots  may  look  to  be  rui 
nously  low,  seeing  that  it  costs  money  to  fatten  up  a 
turkey.  But  in  these  turkey  shoots  the  birds  were 
not  slaughtered  as  handily  as  you  might  think. 
Because  on  these  occasions  I'd  manage  it  so  that 
the  shooters  got  a  glass  or  two  of  toddy,  or  of  whiskey- 
punch  sweetened  with  currant  jelly,  before  the 
shooting  began.  Something  toothsome  like  that  was 
usually  a  coaxer  for  another  glass;  and  then  the 
fellow  couldn't  shoot  straight.  The  liquor  helped 
also  in  another  way.  Because,  when  a  fellow's 


66  THE   BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW 

got  liquor  aboard,  he's  pot-valiant.  He  thinks 
he  can  hit  any  mark  at  any  distance;  which  leads 
him  to  pay  for  no  end  of  shots,  thus  making  more 
money  for  me  without  taking  any  more  of  my  birds. 
So,  even  when,  in  order  to  get  a  fellow  drinking,  I 
had  to  give  him  the  stuff  first  along  without  charge, 
in  the  end  it  more  than  paid.  These  turkey  shoots 
were  profitable  in  another  way  also.  Because  if 
the  day  was  a  good  one,  a  lot  of  people  would  come 
to  look  on.  So  that,  besides  the  fees  for  the  shots, 
I  made  money  from  meals,  shed  room,  horse  feed, 
drinks,  and  such  like. 

These  shoots  and  like  affairs  were  held  back  of 
the  tavern  towards  the  "Winding  Creek,"  as  we 
called  it  —  Crumassie  Vly,  in  Dutch.  (That's 
where  Gramercy  Park  gets  its  name.)  This  creek 
flowed  through  the  farm  of  Jim  Duane,  and  widened 
out  into  a  pond  just  where  Madison  Square  now 
is.  Alongside  the  pond  was  the  Bloomingdale 
Road  (that  is  now  the  continuation  of  the  Broad 
Way).  Around  the  "Bull's  Head"  village  other 
settlements  were  beginning  to  spring  up,  so  that  we 
had  neighbours  on  all  sides.  Not  long  before 
I  came,  there  had  been  a  yellow  fever  scourge 
in  the  City  of  New  York,  which  had  driven  the 
people  out  to  the  suburbs  for  the  summer.  When 
the  summer  was  over  and  the  fever  was  finally 
checked,  many  of  the  people  liked  it  so  well  in  the 
open  country  that  they  stayed.  Thus  the  suburbs 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  67 

were  built  up.  There  was  a  settlement  below  us 
on  the  Boston  Road  called  "  Bowery  Village." 
Peter  Cooper  kept  a  grocery  store  there.  The 
children  used  to  spend  their  pennies  with  him, 
buying  taffy,  gingerbread,  a  bunch  of  raisins,  or 
those  round,  sour  candies  that  later  on  got  the 
name,  "Jackson  Balls."  Peter's  house  stood  where 
the  great  Bible  House  now  is.  When  he  moved  his 
home  up  to  a  spot  back  of  my  tavern  on  the  Ruggles 
Place  alongside  the  Gramercy  Pond,  he  was  that 
methodical,  he  took  his  house  to  pieces,  marked 
each  beam,  and  set  it  all  up  again  on  the  new  site. 
On  another  side  from  us  was  the  farm  of  Jake 
Kip,  alongside  the  East  River.  His  house  was  a  big 
double  building,  made  of  bricks  brought  from 
Holland.  I  was  sorry  when  it  burned  down  a  little 
while  later.  Further  over,  just  above  us  on  the 
"Middle  Road,"  as  we  called  it,  was  Quaker  Mur 
ray's  summer  house,  set  on  a  high  hill.  The  hill- 
is  called  after  him  to  this  day.  (That's  where 
Captain  Vanderbilt  dug  his  wonderful  tunnel  for 
the  railroad,  which  maybe  I  will  write  of  later  on.) 
Sunfish  Pond  lay  just  at  the  foot  of  this  hill,  between 
my  place  and  Murray's.  Peter  Cooper  had  his 
glue  factory  on  the  shores  of  this  pond,  and  made 
no  end  of  money  there.  The  pond  was  a  great 
place  for  eels,  and  was  sure  to  have  some  visitors 
from  my  tavern,  whenever  a  drover  would  stay 
over  a  day  or  two  —  that  is,  in  seasons  when  the  fish- 


68  THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

ing  was  good.  The  pond  used  to  dry  up  in  summer. 
That  wasn't  much  inconvenience  to  me,  because 
in  summer  I  was  too  busy,  anyhow,  to  go  fishing. 
What  fishing  I  did,  I  had  to  do  in  the  cold  season, 
when  the  "Bull's  Head"  wasn't  so  full  of  drovers. 

The  whole  region  roundabout  was  filled  with 
gardens  and  apple  orchards.  Peter  Stuyvesant's  pear 
tree  (the  one  he  brought  from  across  the  ocean) 
was  still  standing  in  my  day,  just  below  the  "  Bull's 
Head"  by  the  side  of  the  Boston  Road.  Along  this 
road  all  the  way  into  the  city,  since  it  widened  out 
and  was  called  the  "  Bowery,"  were  the  summer 
homes  of  rich  New  Yorkers.  Over  where  Union 
Square  now  is,  the  old  powder  house  used  to  stand. 
Above  that,  on  the  east  side  of  the  Bloomingdale 
Road,  was  a  neighbour  of  mine,  the  "Buck's  Horn" 
tavern.  It  had  a  sign  of  a  buck's  head  and  horns 
nailed  onto  a  post  by  the  side  of  the  road,  the  house 
being  set  some  distance  back.  There  was  a  horse- 
shed  running  out  to  the  road.  It  was  a  pretty 
good  place;  but  it  didn't  hurt  me  much.  I  had 
my  drovers'  trade  all  to  myself.  The  "Buck's 
Horn"  on  that  side  of  me,  and  Cato's  on  the  other 
side,  were  more  for  fashionable  sports  on  their 
drives  out  from  the  city. 

There  were  several  ferry  lines  running  over  to 
Long  Island.  One  of  them  was  an  ingenious  con 
traption.  It  had  paddle-wheels  worked  by  six 
horses,  which  walked  around  a  kind  of  windlass  in 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL    DREW  69 

the  centre  of  the  boat.  The  truck  wagons  and 
passengers  would  be  placed  on  the  deck  along  the 
two  sides.  Farmers  and  young  work  hands  used 
to  come  into  the  city  from  Long  Island  by  this  ferry 
to  market  their  crops.  They  all  put  up  at  the 
"Bull's  Head."  They  were  good  customers  of 
mine,  these  Long  Island  farm  hands.  Usually 
they  were  glad  to  get  to  the  city,  like  a  sailor  to  get 
to  port.  About  all  they  thought  of  was  to  have  a 
good  time  and  see  the  sights,  and  would  swap  the 
farm  produce  they  had  fetched  with  them  for  board 
at  my  tavern.  So  I  didn't  have  to  buy  much  farm 
truck  for  my  table.  These  Long  Island  farm 
hands  were  good-natured  boys,  and  trustful;  they 
left  all  the  book-keeping  to  the  host.  Also,  if  they 
had  any  money,  they  gave  it  to  me  to  take  care 
of  for  them,  while  they  were  seeing  the  city. 

In  fact,  besides  my  work  as  a  tavern-keeper,  I 
was  also  at  this  time  a  kind  of  banker.  Because, 
with  a  village  growing  up  around  the  tavern,  there 
was  no  other  place  where  money  could  be  kept. 
So  a  big  safe  was  built  into  the  wall  of  the  "  Bull's 
Head,"  at  the  rear  of  the  tap-room.  It  wasn't 
much  like  the  bank  safes  to-day.  This  one  was 
just  a  big  iron  box  with  double  doors,  and  opened 
with  an  ordinary  house-key.  Here  I  would  put 
the  money  that  the  people  wanted  me  to  take  care 
of.  Sometimes  I  had  so  much  of  it  on  hand  that  I 
was  able  to  take  it  down  to  the  banking  houses  in 


70  THE   BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

the  city  and  invest  it  there.  Seeing  that  I  kept  the 
money  for  my  guests,  I  didn't  have  the  trouble 
which  some  hotel-keepers  have  to-day,  of  people 
jumping  their  tavern  bill.  When  a  man  would 
hand  me  his  money  to  keep,  I  would  put  it  into  an 
unsealed  envelope  —  a  kind  of  open  wallet  —  and 
lock  it  away  .in  the  safe.  Since  I  was  the  only  one 
that  had  the  key,  I  thus  had  the  first  call  on  that 
money.  So,  if  a  man  got  losing  all  the  money  he 
had  and  more  too,  gambling  —  there  was  a  back 
room  upstairs  where  "crack-loo"  was  played,  and 
sometimes  drovers  would  keep  at  it  all  night  and 
late  into  the  next  day  —  I  would  see  to  it  when  I 
handed  him  back  his  money  on  his  leaving,  that 
his  bill  to  the  tavern  was  paid  out  first.  Also,  if 
there  was  any  dispute  over  the  size  of  his  bill,  I 
was  in  position  to  carry  my  point.  But  we  didn't 
have  very  many  disputes  of  that  sort.  Drovers 
are  a  rough-and-ready,  good-natured  lot.  When 
ever  they  would  make  a  trip  to  the  city  they  would 
usually  rake  in  a  big  walletful  of  profits,  and  so 
were  not  close  in  counting  the  pennies,  when  it 
came  to  settling  their  score  at  my  tavern. 

On  such  holidays  as  "Evacuation  Day,"  when  the 
people  celebrated  the  evacuation  of  the  city  by  the 
British  troops  in  the  War  of  the  Revolution,  my 
house  would  be  filled  with  young  drovers  and  farm 
hands  from  the  country,  come  in  to  see  the  sights. 
Sometimes  I  would  have  to  put  three  in  a  bed,  and 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  71 

also  stow  away  some  of  them  in  the  barn  to  sleep  on 
the  hay-mow.  These  celebrations  were  something 
worth  seeing.  There  would  be  a  parade  in  the 
morning  by  mounted  and  foot  soldiers,  artillery, 
the  fire  companies,  the  Tammany  Society,  target 
companies,  and  such  like.  At  these  times  City 
Hall  Park,  which  had  a  great  iron  fence  around  it, 
would  be  surrounded  by  booths  where  they  sold 
roast  pig,  cider,  egg-nog,  and  spruce  beer.  The 
day  would  close  with  a  display  of  fireworks.  At 
other  times  the  young  farm  hands,  "with  money  to 
burn  and  boots  to  collop,"  as  we  say,  could  have 
good  times  at  the  Vauxhall  Gardens,  which  were 
on  the  Bowery  Road,  just  below  Peter  Cooper's 
grocery  store.  These  gardens  stretched  clean  over 
to  what  is  now  Broadway,  on  the  site  where  Astor 
built  his  public  library.  They  had  a  high  wooden 
fence  all  around  with  a  row  of  trees  just  inside. 
When  you  got  in  —  the  gate  was  on  the  Bowery  - 
you  found  a  beautiful  garden  with  gravelled  walks 
winding  in  and  out  between  the  flower  beds. 
Around  the  sides,  between  the  trees,  were  little 
booths  for  two  or  three  people,  with  a  table  where 
ginger  pop,  cakes,  baked  pears  swimming  in  molasses, 
and  such-like  delicacies  were  sold.  In  the  centre 
of  all  was  a  pavilion  for  music  and  perfor 
mances. 

I    didn't    encourage    my    guests    to    go    to    such 
places,   but  to  stay  up  at  the  "Bull's  Head"   and 


72  THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

spend  their  money  there.  They  could  find  enough 
excitement  at  my  place.  For  my  tavern  was  one 
of  the  road-houses  for  the  stage  which  went  between 
Park  Row,  New  York,  and  Harlem  Village  every 
day.  The  stage  would  reach  us  a  little  before  nine 
in  the  morning,  having  left  Harlem  at  seven  o'clock. 
Arriving  at  Park  Row  at  ten,  it  would  start  back 
in  the  afternoon  at  three,  get  to  the  "Bull's  Head" 
about  four  and  arrive  in  Harlem  at  supper-time. 
Also,  there  would  be  everlasting  dickerings  in  horse 
flesh  to  furnish  excitement  and  keep  the  blood 
stirring.  For  the  "Bull's  Head"  was  becoming 
the  horse-exchange  as  well  as  the  cattle  exchange 
for  New  York  City.  Those  two  lines  of  trade  go 
together,  anyhow.  Farmers  would  bring  in  their 
horses  from  the  country  to  my  tavern,  and  the  city 
people  would  come  there  to  look  them  over.  In 
this  way,  from  being  a  master  hand  in  judging 
cattle,  I  pretty  soon  came  to  have  great  skill  in 
horse-flesh  also.  It  stood  me  in  hand  to  be  up  in 
it.  Sound  animals  find  quick  buyers.  Skill  in 
horse-flesh  shows  itself  in  selling  an  unsound  animal. 
After  a  time  I  got  so  that  I  could  turn  a  good  penny 
in  a  horse  deal.  It  is  a  curious  thing  how  a  broken- 
down  plug  can  be  doctored  up  and  made  into  a 
fairly  good-looking  beast,  for  purposes  of  a  trade  or 
sale.  If  he's  got  holes  back  of  his  eyes  through 
age,  by  working  carefully  you  can  prick  a  hole 
through  and  blow  under  the  skin,  and  so  pufF  the 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  73 

hollow  up,  smooth  as  the  forehead  of  a  two-year- 
old.  Another  good  dodge  to  make  an  old  horse  look 
young,  is  to  take  a  file  and  bishop  his  teeth;  for  a 
buyer  is  sure  to  look  in  the  mouth  the  first  thing. 
Or  you  can  sometimes  burn  into  a  horse's  teeth 
the  marks  which  go  with  coltishness.  With  thick- 
winded  animals  a  good  dose  of  tar  poured  down 
the  throat  will  often  stop  broken  wind  long  enough 
to  get  the  animal  sold.  Roarers  are  harder  to  fix. 
They  give  you  away  'most  every  time.  But  even 
with  this  kind  of  beast  there  is  a  way,  if  you  are 
on  to  it.  Well-greased  shot  poured  down  the  roarer's 
throat  will  ease  off  the  roarings  and  make  him  - 
for  an  hour  or  two  —  quite  a  sound-winded  animal. 
Besides  all  these,  a  favourite  device,  when  a  young 
ninny  would  come  along  that  didn't  know  a  horse- 
colt  from  a  mare,  was  to  offer  him  the  animal  for 
sale  with  the  harness  on.  In  such  cases  he  usually 
thinks  he  is  getting  a  bargain,  because  the  harness 
seems  thrown  in.  Whereas  the  truth  is,  you  have 
tucked  that  on  to  the  price,  and  meanwhile  the 
harness  is  covering  up  some  galled  spots  on  the 
animal  that  otherwise  would  stand  out  like  a  sore 
thumb.  In  nine  cases  out  of  ten  the  young  booby 
jumps  at  the  bargain,  like  a  hen  at  a  goose 
berry. 

For  amusement  at  night  there  was  no  end  of  things 
going  on.  Of  a  summer's  evening  there  were 
quoits,  wrestling  matches,  and  boxing  bouts,  out 


74  THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

in  the  road  in  front  of  the  tavern.  While  in  the 
winter  the  guests  would  gather  about  the  big  fire 
place  in  the  tap-room,  and  smoke  and  chew  while 
some  one  read  the  news  out  loud.  Over  in  one 
corner  was  a  table  for  checkers  and  backgammon. 
We  didn't  have  spittoons  in  those  days.  We  didn't 
need  them;  because  I  used  to  keep  the  floor  of  the 
tap-room  good  and  clean  by  means  of  a  layer  of 
white  sand  from  Rockaway.  One  newspaper  would 
last  a  company  for  several  evenings,  because  poli 
tics  ran  high  in  those  days,  and  discussions  would 
last  sometimes  far  into  a  winter's  night.  When 
Andrew  Jackson's  bank  measure  went  through, 
there  was  such  high  feeling,  and  the  parties  were 
that  bitter,  my  guests  sometimes  had  fist-fights 
before  the  discussion  was  over.  Another  topic  of 
discussion  one  time  \vas  a  book  by  a  Mr.  Fenimore 
Cooper,  called  "The  Spy."  It  made  no  end  of  talk 
about  the  time  of  which  I  am  now  speaking.  Because 
'most  every  other  man  you  met  had  his  own  idea  as 
to  who  was  the  real  original  of  "The  Spy"  in  the 
story.  I  never  read  books  of  any  kind,  and  novels 
are  a  sinful  kind  of  book,  anyhow.  But  I  couldn't 
help  hearing  a  lot  about  this  book,  because  every 
body  was  talking  about  it.  And  when  finally  it 
came  out  that  the  original  of  "The  Spy"  was  no 
other  than  the  same  Enoch  Crosby  that  is  in  the 
Gilead  burying  ground  up  in  Carmel,  I  was  mighty 
interested.  I  had  a  whole  lot  to  tell  about  the  man 


THE   BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW  75 

to  the  people  who  came  to  the  tavern.  It  would 
be  a  mercy  to  put  up  a  tombstone  to  mark  Crosby's 
grave.  I  almost  believe  I  would  do  it  myself.  Only 
just  now  I  am  giving  orders  for  a  tombstone  in  my 
own  family  burying  lot  at  Drewsclift  —  a  big  cross, 
carved  out  of  solid  granite. 


IX 


THESE  talks  of  a  winter's  night  around  the 
fireplace  in  the  "Bull's  Head"  tap-room, 
were  great  places  for  getting  the  news. 
Every  man  who  had  something  new  not  only  liked 
to  tell  it  but  was  expected  to.  Because  newspapers 
were  not  very  numerous,  and  besides,  there  were 
lots  of  people  who  couldn't  read  it  even  when  they 
had  one.  Accordingly  news  got  around  in  great 
part  by  word  of  mouth.  There  was  much  excite 
ment,  I  remember,  over  the  news  of  the  invention 
of  brimstone  matches  —  sticks  of  wood  which  would 
light  themselves.  For,  one  day,  the  news  came  to 
us  that  children  had  been  seen  down  on  the  streets 
of  New  York  City  selling  pine  sticks  about  five 
inches  long,  with  something  on  the  end  of  each 
stick,  so  that  by  rubbing  it  the  stick  would  break 
out  into  a  blaze.  It  made  a  lot  of  stir  when  some 
of  these  pine  shavings  were  actually  shown  in  the 
tap-room  one  night,  and  it  was  seen  that  the  back 
log  and  flint-and-tinder  were  now  out  of  date. 
But  these  loco-focos,  as  they  were  called,  were 
rather  expensive.  So  I  didn't  put  them  into  the 
tavern  right  away.  New-fangled  things  usually 

76 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  77 

cost  more  than  they  are  worth;  I  was  getting  rich 
by  saving  the  pennies,  here  one  and  there  one,  like 
a  hen  fills  her  crop,  one  grain  at  a  time.  So  the  fire 
tongs  which  hung  by  the  fireplace  for  use  by  the 
guests  to  light  their  pipes  with  cinders  from  the 
fire,  were  not  taken  down.  I  never  was  much  of 
a  hand,  anyhow,  for  new-fashioned  things. 

Another  piece  of  news  which  was  beginning  to 
be  noised  around,  up  in  our  tavern,  was  of  a  rich 
country  out  West  beyond  the  Alleghanies.  It  was 
not  often  that  we  got  a  traveller  from  so  far  away 
as  that.  So  when  we  did,  we  made  him  tell  all 
he  knew.  In  this  way  I  heard  tell  how  there  was 
a  rich  valley  out  in  Ohio,  called  the  Scioto  Valley, 
where  there  was  some  of  the  finest  beef  cattle  ever 
known.  And  these  cattle  could  be  bought  out 
there  for  a  song.  A  man  by  the  name  of  Lewis 
Sanders,  across  the  Ohio  River  in  Kentucky,  had 
imported  three  bulls  and  three  heifers  from  England, 
of  the  short-horn  variety.  The  Pattens  (I  think 
it  was),  from  the  South  Fork,  in  Virginia,  had  also 
taken  with  them  into  that  Western  country  some 
blooded  stock,  and  had  brought  out  the  bull  Pluto. 
A  blooded  short-horn  cow,  Venus,  bulled  by  Pluto, 
had  helped  to  people  all  the  pastures  throughout 
the  Scioto  region.  This  importing  of  foundation 
stocks  from  England  was  also  helped  along  by 
General  Van  Rensselaer,  up  at  Albany,  who  had 
just  been  bringing  over  from  Europe  the  bull  Wash- 


78  THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

ington,  and  two  short-horn  heifers.  The  short-horns 
make  one  of  the  best  beef  breeds  I  have  ever  seen. 
Our  American  cattle  were  mostly  of  the  Devon, 
the  Hereford,  the  Sussex  and  the  Norfolk, of  England; 
the  Ayrshire  and  the  Galloway,  of  Scotland;  the 
Kerrys,  of  Ireland;  the  Alderney,  Guernsey  and 
Jersey  breeds  of  the  Channel  Islands;  with  the 
Holsteins  and  Holstein-Friesians  from  Holland. 
All  of  these  imported  breeds,  out  in  the  rich  Ohio 
and  Kentucky  reservations,  had  bred  into  an  even 
finer  beef  cattle  than  on  their  native  soil.  Perhaps 
this  was  because  of  the  rich  grass  and  good  quality 
of  water.  The  short-horns  were  particularly  sought 
out  by  us  drovers,  because  they  were  beef  breeds. 
In  that  day  beeves  were  more  important  than  dairy 
cattle.  Beef  is  easier  to  transport  than  butter  or 
cheese,  because  it  will  drive  overland  of  itself.  In 
that  day  we  didn't  have  hardly  any  other  means 
of  transporting  food-stuff  long  distances,  except  to 
drive  it  on  its  own  legs.  Not  that  the  short-horns 
are  not  good  milkers,  too;  but  they  are  especially 
good  for  butcher  purposes. 

When  I  heard  these  stories  about  the  Western 
lands,  I  became  mighty  interested,  because  the  city 
of  New  York  was  growing  so  all-fired  fast,  it  was 
hard  to  find  enough  beeves  in  the  regions  rounda 
bout;  so  that  the  price  of  fit  cattle  was  going  higher 
and  higher.  I  pondered  the  matter.  I  made  up 
my  mind.  Calling  Chamberlain  to  me  one  day  — 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  79 

he  had  been  my  bartender  at  the  "Bull's  Head/' 
and  had  married  my  daughter  —  I  said  to 
him: 

"Roswell,"  said  I,  "you've  got  to  take  care  of  the 
place  here  for  two  or  three  months.  I'm  going 
out  to  Ohio  to  get  a  drove  of  cattle."  He  looked 
at  me  with  eyes  as  big  as  saucers. 

"What's  that?"   said  he. 

''  Just  what  I  say,"  I  answered.  "I'm  going  to 
bring  some  of  those  there  critters  from  the  West, 
right  here  into  the  New  York  market." 

"  How  in  the  world  are  you  going  to  get  them  over 
the  mountains?"  said  he.  "It's  a  wild-goose 
chase;  they'll  die  if  you  drive  them  that  far." 

"Leave  that  to  me,  son,"  said  I,  "leave  that  to 
me.  I  calculate  to  manage  it  fine  as  a  fiddle." 

So  I  began  to  make  my  plans.  First  I  went  to 
Henry  Astor,  the  butcher.  He  had  been  pretty 
well  riled  up  against  me  once,  because  of  some 
deals  we  had  had  together.  I  think  I've  wrote 
about  it,  somewhere  in  these  papers.  But  he  got 
over  being  mad  after  a  time,  and  he  and  I  had 
become  good  friends  once  more.  He  had  made  a 
peck  of  money  as  a  butcher  in  the  Fulton  Market. 
So  much,  in  fact,  that  he  had  retired  and  now  was  a 
kind  of  private  banker.  I  went  to  him  and  got 
a  loan  of  money  to  make  the  Western  trip.  I  saw 
that  it  wouldn't  pay  to  drive  just  a  herd  of  ordinary 
size  that  distance.  I  had  to  do  it  on  a  big  scale 


8o  THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

or  not  at  all.  So  I  got  the  money  from  him  —  he 
made  me  give  all-fired  heavy  security  —  and  started 
out.  I  took  a  Mr.  Robinson  with  me.  He  later 
went  in  with  me  in  the  banking  business,  when  I 
became  a  Wall  Street  operator.  He  was  an  A 
No.  I  drover;  I  wanted  that  kind  of  a  partner. 
I  also  took  along  our  cow-dogs.  A  good  cow-dog 
is  not  to  be  picked  up  everywheres.  A  drover 
learns,  when  he  once  gets  a  good  animal  of  that 
type,  to  keep  him.  They  are  marvellous  intelligent. 
Fve  had  cow-dogs  that  knew  almost  as  much  as  I 
did  about  driving  cattle  or  sheep.  And  they  are 
faithful,  too.  They  aren't  spiggot-suckers,  like 
some  of  your  hired  help.  They  will  work  for  you 
night  and  day,  and  for  pay  only  ask  a  few  bones 
and  a  pan  of  milk  at  night. 

We  started  out  in  the  stage  coach,  going  by  day's 
journeys  through  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  --  Rob 
inson,  the  dogs,  and  myself.  The  dogs  were  lots 
of  company  on  the  journey  out.  Much  of  the  way 
through  Pennsylvania  the  woods  were  thick;  the 
dogs,  following  behind,  would  do  some  hunting 
on  the  side,  and  often  brought  in  a  rabbit,  partridge, 
or  such  like  game.  It  took  over  a  week  to  get  to  Ohio. 
Out  there  I  found  that  what  I  had  heard  tell  about 
the  richness  of  that  Western  country  was  gospel. 
The  Scioto  Valley  was  full  of  fat  beef  cattle  which 
could  be  bought  —  for  cash  —  at  a  price  that  would 
have  made  a  farmer  out  East  turn  up  his  nose  at  the 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL    DREW  81 

offer.  I  had  no  trouble  in  getting  together  a  drove 
of  fine  cattle  and  other  stock — over  two  thousand 
head  in  all.  Then  we  started  towards  home.  I 
didn't  know  how  long  it  was  going  to  take  to  get 
back.  Because  this  was  pioneer  work.  No  drove 
of  cattle  had  ever  been  taken  across  the  Alleghany 
Mountains  before.  So  I  was  anxious  to  get  started. 
Besides,  I  wanted  to  get  them  into  the  New  York 
market  before  the  heat  of  summer  came  on. 

We  got  along  prosperous.  The  spring  of  the 
year  is  a  good  time  for  drover's  work.  In  the  first 
place,  it  is  the  right  time  to  buy  the  cattle  from  the 
farmers.  Then  again,  at  this  season  the  roads  are 
soft,  so  as  not  to  lame  the  animals.  And  besides, 
there  is  lots  of  water  for  drinking  purposes,  and 
plenty  of  pasture  at  night.  In  taking  a  big  drove, 
the  order  of  march  is  for  the  drover  to  ride  ahead, 
sometimes  several  miles  in  advance,  in  order  to  pick 
out  the  road  and  to  make  arrangements  for  shelter 
ing  the  animals  at  nightfall.  In  the  present  case 
that  work  fell  to  me.  Another  duty  of  mine  was  to 
find  fit  places  for  fording  the  rivers  —  either  a  natu 
ral  ford,  or  else  some  places  where  the  animals 
could  get  down  into  the  water  safely,  swim  over, 
and  get  up  again  onto  the  bank  opposite.  Because 
those  were  early  days  in  the  Western  country.  The 
roads  didn't  have  bridges  at  all  places.  And  alr 
though  there  were  ferries  for  the  stage-coach,  the're 
wasn't  any  ferry  big  enough  to  take  care  of  two 


82  THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

thousand  head  of  live  stock.  So  we  had  to  swim 
or  ford  the  rivers. 

In  driving  a  herd,  the  cattle  are  placed  first.  The 
dogs  are  trained  to  follow  along  just  behind  and 
alongside  the  cattle;  because  the  sheep  will  come 
along  behind  of  themselves,  being  timid.  They 
don't  need  much  tending.  After  the  first  day  or 
two  they  get  to  know  the  cattle,  and  crowd  in 
close  behind  them  without  any  urging.  It's  curious, 
anyhow,  to  see  how  a  drove  of  live  stock  will  form 
itself  into  a  herd  after  one  or  two  days  of  marching. 
They  seem  to  get  acquainted  with  each  other,  they 
become  a  kind  of  a  big  family  —  the  cows,  the  sheep, 
the  dogs,  the  horses  and  the  boys.  They 'get  intro 
duced,  so  to  speak,  and  hang  together  after  that  as 
though  they  had  growed  up  on  one  farm. 

This  flocking  spirit  was  a  great  help  on  the  journey. 
Because  pretty  soon  after  leaving  Ohio  and  getting 
over  into  Pennsylvania,  the  country  became  so  wild 
that,  unless  the  animals  had  learned  to  herd  together, 
they  could  easily  have  strayed  and  many  would 
have  been  lost.  In  fact,  the  country  became  so 
much  of  a  wilderness  after  a  while  that  I  wasn't 
always  able  to  find  cattle  boys  when  I  wanted 
them.  On  a  long  drive  like  this,  you  don't  have 
cattle  boys  for  the  entire  journey.  Boys  such  as 
you  hire  for  this  kind  of  business  are  youngsters, 
and  aren't  allowed  to  go  far  from  home.  Therefore, 
we  used  to  pick  up  a  set  of  boys  in  the  settlements 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  83 

we  passed  through,  take  them  with  us  for  a  day's 
drive,  and  let  them  go  back  the  next  day,  taking  a 
new  set  in  their  place.  But  when  we  came  to  the 
mountains,  the  settlements  were  so  scattered  that 
sometimes  we  had  to  use  the  same  set  of  boys  for 
several  days'  journeys.  The  farmers  along  the  road 
were  very  obliging.  They  seemed  to  know  that 
this  was  the  first  of  what  would  probably  become 
a  frequent  custom,  and  so  helped  me  along.  Fodder 
and  living  were  cheap  out  there,  anyhow.  At  night 
fall,  when  I  would  put  up  at  a  farmhouse  and  ask 
for  accommodations  for  the  drove,  they  would  let 
me  have  it  at  a  most  reasonable  figure.  Some 
times  I  paid  these  bills  by  leaving  with  the  farmer 
the  lambs  or  calves  that  had  been  dropped  during 
that  day's  march.  They  were  very  trustful  farmers 
out  there.  All  I  would  need  to  do,  sometimes, 
would  be  to  say: 

"Neighbour,  a  couple  of  miles  back,  down  by 
that  ledge  of  rock,  you'll  find  a  ewe.  She  dropped 
a  lamb  yesterday,  and  we  left  her  behind.  Pretty 
good  pair.  Send  your  boy  down  and  you  can  have 
them.  We  can't  stop  to  take  them  with  us.  These 
new-born  youngsters  would  delay  our  march." 

Two  or  three  of  that  kind  would  sometimes  pay 
our  entire  bill  for  the  night's  lodging.  Besides, 
there  were  the  cattle  that  got  sick.  A  critter  is 
often  too  sick  to  drive;  when,  if  he  can  only  have 
a  little  spell  to  rest  up  under  a  cattle-shed,  he'll 


84  THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

get  well  again  and  thrive.  I  helped  pay  my 
lodging  bills  by  means  of  these  sick  critters  which 
I  left  behind.  Besides,  the  farmers  were  glad  to 
have  a  drover  come  to  take  their  own  fadings.  Often 
I  could  make  a  swap,  leaving  some  new-dropped 
calves  or  lambs,  and  take  instead  good  healthy 
stock. 

There  were  places  where  we  had  to  camp  out 
at  night.  When  we  got  up  into  the  Alleghany 
Mountains  and  started  crossing  that  wilderness, 
there  were  sometimes  no  farm  clearings  for  mile 
after  mile.  When  nightfall  would  overtake  us  here, 
we  would  have  to  shift  the  best  way  we  could.  But 
you  get  used  to  sleeping  out,  after  a  while.  Cut 
browse  for  the  horses,  let  the  critters  pick  a  meal  from 
the  grass  and  leaves,  wherever  they  can  find  it;  and, 
with  a  blanket  over  some  hemlock  boughs,  make 
a  bed  for  yourself;  in  the  morning  you  eat  as  though 
there  was  a  wolf  in  your  belly. 

Real  wolves  sometimes  used  to  scare  us.  Wolves 
are  very  fond  of  veal,  and  at  that  time  they  had  not 
yet  been  cleared  out  of  the  Western  mountains. 
The  states  were  trying  their  best  to  get  rid  of  the 
pestersome  varmints  and  used  to  offer  a  bounty 
for  wolves'  scalps.  In  fact,  in  some  places  the  kil 
ling  of  wolves  was  quite  a  business.  A  trapper 
could  take  a  wolf's  scalp  to  the  justice  of  the  peace 
and  get  a  scalp  certificate  payable  by  the  tax-gatherer 
when  the  next  tax  was  gathered.  But  he  didn't 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  85 

have  to  wait  for  the  tax-gatherer,  because  these 
scalp  certificates  were  good  at  'most  any  store  for 
merchandise.  The  country  out  there  was  so 
uncleared  that  there  were  still  plenty  of  wolves  in 
the  mountains.  In  fact,  some  trappers  were  so 
abandoned,  and  the  bounty  on  scalps  so  high  —  for 
a  full-grown  wolf,  $40,  and  for  whelps,  half  that 
price  —  that  they  would  keep  a  she- wolf  and  her  litter 
of  whelps  out  in  some  secluded  place  in  the  moun 
tains,  in  order  to  sell  the  scalps  when  they  were 
full-grown.  We  met  with  this  danger.  But  here 
again  the  herding  spirit  of  my  critters  was  a  help. 
At  night,  when  they  would  hear  a  pack  of  fifteen  or 
twenty  wolves  a-yelping  in  the  darkness,  the  cattle 
and  sheep  would  crowd  in  together,  shivering  with 
fear.  They  wouldn't  need  any  dogs  or  boys  to 
round  them  up.  In  fact  they  would  hug  in  so 
tight  that  they  would  well-nigh  smother  to  death 
a  weakling  that  might  be  in  the  middle  of  the  herd. 
With  all  my  care  I  lost  a  sight  of  critters  before 
I  got  the  drove  through.  There  were  those  devoured 
by  the  wolves;  and  the  stray-aways,  because  we 
couldn't  stop  to  hunt  up  a  lost  steer,  if  he  got  too  far 
from  the  drove.  Also,  some  died  of  mud-fever  on 
the  legs  and  belly,  due  to  sloppy  roads.  Then  there 
were  the  accidents  that  happen  on  a  journey  through 
a  wild  country  and  across  deep  and  sometimes  swift 
rivers.  Out  of  a  drove  of  two  thousand,  we  lost 
four  or  five  hundred  at  least.  And,  do  the  best  we 


86  THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

could,  we  made  slow  time.  Delays  were  all  the 
time  happening.  A  horse  would  get  a  wind-gall 
on  the  fetlock,  or  my  mare  would  get  a  swollen 
hock  and  would  need  to  be  coddled.  Finally, 
after  delays  and  losses,  we  got  the  drove  into  the 
New  York  market. 

And  now  I  found  that  the  trip  was  worth  all  the 
time  and  pains  which  it  had  cost.  I  had  picked 
up  the  cattle  dirt  cheap  in  Ohio,  and  the  price  of 
young,  fat  critters  in  the  New  York  market  was 
so  high  that  I  cleared  up  over  $30  on  every  head 
of  cattle  in  the  drove. 


X 


I  HAD  done  so  well  on  the  Ohio  trip  that  I 
followed  it  up  with  several  more.  These 
times  I  went  into  Kentucky  and  even  as  far 
west  as  Illinois.  Because  now  I  knew  that  it  could 
be  done,  and  also  more  or  less  how  to  do  it.  There 
were  accidents  and  delays.  But  New  York  was 
growing  so  fast  and  the  price  of  butcher's  meat  was 
climbing  at  such  a  rate,  that  I  found  each  time  a  fine 
profit  when  I  had  cleaned  up  the  deal.  I  gave 
Astor  back  the  money  he  had  loaned  me,  and  had 
enough  besides  to  pay  me  for  my  trouble. 

Of  course,  these  Western  trips  didn't  take  up  all 
my  time  during  these  years.  I  paid  attention,  off 
and  on,  to  running  the  "Bull's  Head."  I  was 
also  making  short  trips  out  around  New  York  to 
pick  up  a  herd  of  cattle  here  and  there.  There 
were  some  fine  grazing  bottoms  cut  through  Orange 
County.  I  got  to  know  some  of  those  southern 
counties  of  York  State,  as  well  as  the  near-by  regions 
of  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania. 

One  day  something  happened  to  me  whilst  on  a 
cattle  trip  I  was  taking  up  near  the  Harlem  River, 
which  had  a  great  effect  upon  my  life.  It  was  my 

87 


88  THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

remarkable  escape  from  death  by  lightning,  and  my 
return  to  religion.  For  I  had  by  this  time  —  I  grieve 
to  state  it  —  backslided  once  more.  The  life  at 
the  "Bull's  Head"  tavern  was  not  very  favourable 
to  growth  in  grace.  Besides,  I  was  trotting  about 
here  and  there.  Churches  were  not  very  numerous, 
and  my  religious  life  got  like  the  dead  ashes  in  the 
fireplace,  here  and  there  perhaps  a  live  spark,  but 
the  fire,  for  the  most  part,  died  out.  I  say,  there 
were  still  some  live  sparks;  because  all  during  this 
time  of  my  backslidden  state  I  had  periods  when  I 
was  under  conviction;  which  means  that  the  spirit 
was  still  striving  with  my  soul.  But  I  was  not 
yielding  to  these  strivings  of  the  spirit.  I  seemed 
to  have  become  hardened.  Now  something  was  to 
happen  which  was  to  bring  me  back  once  more 
within  the  fold,  never  again  to  wander. 

I  had  driven  up  to  Manhattanville,  in  the  upper 
part  of  Manhattan  Island,  some  miles  from  the 
Builds  Head  village.  I  was  in  a  gig,  for  I  had  a 
man  with  me.  My  visit  was  for  the  purpose  of 
looking  over  some  cattle  which  were  on  a  farm  up 
near  that  town.  We  reached  the  place,  tied  the 
gig  at  the  gate,  and  went  out  into  the  field  where 
the  cattle  were.  Whilst  I  was  looking  them  over 
I  noticed  a  hard  thunder-shower  brewing,  and  hur 
ried  through  the  work.  This  I  could  do  easily, 
because  I  had  by  this  time  become  one  of  the  best 
judges  of  critters  to  be  met  with  anywheres.  I 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  89 

could  take  in  the  parts  of  a  steer  with  one  sweep 
of  my  eye.  As  soon  as  the  job  was  done  we  got 
back  to  the  gig  and  started  to  drive  to  shelter  before 
the  storm  should  break.  But  it  was  providentially 
to  be  otherwise.  We  had  hardly  got  the  horse 
unhitched  and  started  on  our  way,  when  the  storm 
broke  all  around  us.  We  tried  to  press  on.  Sud 
denly  we  were  blinded  by  a  blaze  of  light  brighter 
than  a  hundred  suns  at  noonday.  I  guess  it  was 
followed  by  a  terrific  thunder-clap.  But  of  this 
I  am  not  sure,  because,  after  that  blaze  of  light, 
I  don't  remember  anything. 

How  long  I  lay  unconscious  I  don't  know,  but  it 
must  have  been  some  time.  Because,  when  I  came 
to,  the  rain  had  ceased  and  the  storm  had  cleared 
away.  I  found  that  my  companion  had  also  been 
stunned  and  now  was  likewise  coming  out  of  the 
fit.  When  we  got  back  some  of  our  senses  we  looked 
around.  There  before  us  the  horse  lay,  dead  in 
the  harness.  It  was  by  a  miracle  that  my  life  had 
been  spared.  Then  and  there  I  gave  myself  once 
more  to  the  Lord.  As  can  be  seen,  it  took  a  great 
deal  of  the  grace  of  God  to  reach  me.  He  had  to 
try  so  many  times  before  he  finally  got  me  landed 
safe  and  sound  on  his  side.  I  promised  that  I 
would  never  backslide  again. 

Not  that  I  was  ever  very  bad.  Even  in  my  back- 
slideful  states  I  had  never  been  a  profane,  bad  man, 
and  I  had  always  held  infidels  in  great  horror.  Over 


go  THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL    DREW 

in  Greenwich  village,  across  Bloomingdale  Road 
from  the  "Bull's  Head,"  was  the  house  where  a 
man  by  the  name  of  Tom  Paine  had  lived.  He 
had  written  a  bad  book  called  "The  Age  of  Reason." 
To  reach  his  village  from  my  side  of  the  island,  I 
had  to  go  through  the  potter's  field,  where  public 
hangings  used  to  be  held.  The  gallows  stood  right 
in  the  middle  of  what  is  now  Washington  Square. 
On  top  of  that  gallows  many  a  poor  fellow  used 
to  stand,  never  to  walk  again-  "jerked  to  Jesus" 
is  what  we  called  it  back  in  those  days.  I  don't 
see  how  any  one,  if  he  had  any  spark  of  grace  about 
him,  could  go  by  that  gallows  and  across  that  potter's 
field  to  the  road  where  Paine's  house  was,  without 
feeling  a  horror  for  bad  men  and  infidels. 

I  was  glad,  after  I  had  fully  recovered  from  the  fit 
into  which  that  stroke  of  lightning  threw  me,  that 
I  had  gone  through  the  experience,  and  had  become 
at  last  soundly  converted.  Because,  as  it  later 
turned  out,  the  drover  business  was  not  to  be  my 
work  all  through  life.  Just  as  I  was  beginning 
middle  life,  I  left  it,  said  good-bye  to  my  life  at  the 
"Bull's  Head"  tavern,  and  got  into  the  steamboat 
business.  An  owner  of  steamboats  ought  to  be 
religious  and  respectable-like.  It  may  not  be  so 
bad  for  a  drover  to  stay  away  from  church,  because 
his  business  is  a  rough-and-ready  business,  anyhow. 
People  don't  expect  much  of  him.  But  a  steam 
boat  proprietor  is  in  a  higher  seat.  A  man  of  promi- 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW  91 

nence  is  called  upon  to  be  godly  in  his  walk  and 
conversation;  he  should  hold  his  head  up  —  like  a 
hen  drinking  water.  There  was  Peter  Cooper.  He 
was  godly.  He  was  superintendent  of  the  Sunday- 
school,  there  below  the  "  Bull's  Head,"  from  which 
the  Bowery  Village  Church  started.  He  was  a 
man  that  feared  God  and  went  to  meeting  on  Sun 
days.  I  was  glad  that  I,  too,  was  now  on  the  Lord's 
side.  And  though  I  have  suffered  many  losses 
since  then,  I  am  thankful  to  say  that  from  that  day 
to  this  I  have  never  lost  my  religion. 


XI 


MY  START  into  the  steamboat  business  came 
about  more  or  less  haphazard.    There  was 
a  little  boat  run  between  Peekskill  and 
New  York,  by  Jake  Vanderbilt,  a  brother  of  Cor 
nelius   Vanderbilt.     It   was   in   connection    with    a 
boat  designed  to  compete  with  this  one  of  Vander- 
bilt's,  that  I  made  the  start. 

This  was  back  in  the  early  days,  when  steam- 
boating  on  the  Hudson  River  was  just  getting  under 
way.  The  old  sailing  sloops  were  still  in  use,  but 
were  rapidly  becoming  back  numbers.  A  sloop 
would  sometimes  take  nine  days  in  going  from 
New  York  to  Albany.  When  the  Chancellor 
Livingston  made  the  trip  once  in  nineteen  hours 
and  a  half,  people  thought  it  a  miracle,  and  gave 
her  the  name,  Skimmer  of  the  River.  But  even 
the  sloops  were  an  improvement  over  the  old  stage 
coach,  because  the  fare  by  stage-coach  from  New 
York  to  Albany  was  $8,  and  it  never  took  less  than 
two  days  and  one  night.  Besides  being  slow,  the 
sloops  were  also  inconvenient;  yes,  even  danger- 
some,  because  the  winds  on  the  Hudson  are  fluky, 
squalls  rushing  out,  often  without  any  warning,  from 

92 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  93 

behind  the  headlands  which  line  both  sides  of  the 
river.  The  boom  of  one  of  the  old  packet  sloops 
was  sometimes  ninety  feet  long,  and  when  it  jibed 
unlooked-for,  would  sweep  everything  before  it. 
There  was  Dunham,  a  merchant  of  New  York  City 
and  of  a  considerable  name.  He  was  making  the 
trip  one  day  on  a  sloop  down  from  Albany,  when 
the  sail  jibed;  the  boom  knocked  him  overboard 
like  a  nine-pin,  and  he  was  drowned.  So  when 
Fulton,  with  his  partner,  Livingston,  showed  that 
steam-engines  could  be  put  into  a  boat  and  would 
propel  it  even  against  wind  and  tide,  it  made  a  great 
change. 

For  some  years,  however,  the  effect  of  the  new 
invention  was  not  noticeable.  Because  Fulton  had 
got  a  grant  from  the  Legislature  giving  to  him  and 
Livingston  exclusive  right  to  steamboat  navigation 
on  the  tide  waters  of  York  State.  This  kept  rival 
boats  off.  At  last,  some  time  before  I  started  in, 
this  monopoly  had  been  done  away.  It  came  about 
through  that  famous  suit  of  "Gibbons  against 
Ogden."  Thomas  Gibbons  was  the  owner  of  a 
steamboat,  Bellona,  which  plied  between  New 
York  and  Elizabethtown,  New  Jersey.  (He  was 
the  one  who  built  that  beautiful  estate  down  at 
Bottle  Hill,  New  Jersey,  which  I  bought  from  his 
son,  William  Gibbons,  and  turned  into  the  Drew 
Theological  Seminary,  years  after.)  Ogden  had  got 
from  Fulton  and  Livingston  a  grant  to  carry  on 


94  THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

their  monopoly.  So,  when  Gibbons  started  in, 
Ogden  had  him  arrested.  Then  Dan  Webster, 
Gibbons's  counsel,  made  that  famous  speech  of  his 
before  the  Supreme  Court,  which  broke  up  the 
monopoly  and  opened  the  tide  waters  of  all  the 
states  to  free  navigation.  When  Gibbons  found 
himself  free  to  run  boats,  he  went  ahead  with  lots 
of  push.  He  got  a  young  man  by  the  name  of 
Cornelius  Vanderbilt,  who  had  been  running  a 
sailing  sloop  between  New  York  and  Staten  Island, 
to  be  captain  of  his  boat,  the  Bellona.  This  ran 
from  New  York  to  Elizabethtown,  where  it  shipped 
its  passengers  to  the  stage-coach,  which  carried 
them  on  to  Philadelphia  and  the  South. 

Vanderbilt  did  so  well  there  that  he  became 
superintendent  of  the  line,  and  used  to  go  up  to 
Bottle  Hill  to  report  to  the  owner  concerning  the 
boat.  Gibbons  by  and  by  sold  the  boat  to  the 
Stevens  Brothers,  of  Hoboken.  Then  young  Cor 
nelius  Vanderbilt  took  up  navigation  on  the  Hudson. 
He  started  a  small  boat  called  the  General  Jackson, 
to  run  between  New  York  and  Peekskill,  and  put 
his  brother  Jake  on  as  captain. 

Those  early  steamboats  were  funny  things,  com 
pared  with  the  great  boats  which  are  seen  to-day, 
such  as  the  Drew,  and  the  Dean  Richmond. 
Back  in  the  early  days  they  didn't  have  any  pilot 
house.  The  steersman  was  nothing  more  than  the 
old  sloop  steersman;  only,  instead  of  working  a 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  95 

tiller  at  the  stern,  he  was  placed  up  on  top  of  the 
cabin,  with  a  tiller  wheel  connecting  to  the  rudder 
by  a  rope,  and  was  exposed  to  the  wind  and  weather. 
His  station  was  directly  over  the  engine.  He  sig 
nalled  to  the  engineer  by  tapping  with  a  cane  on 
the  roof.  One  tap  meant,  "Go  ahead";  two  taps, 
"Backup." 

Well,  as  I  started  to  say,  the  General  Jackson 
one  day  blew  up.  That  line  between  Peekskill  and 
New  York  had  interested  me  more  or  less,  anyhow, 
because  it  had  become  the  great  way  of  getting  back 
and  forth  between  the  city  and  my  old  home  in 
Putnam  County.  But  I  hadn't  thought  of  going 
into  the  business  myself.  I  counted  on  buying  and 
selling  cattle  all  my  life.  But  one  day,  soon  after 
Jake  Vanderbilt's  boat,  the  General  Jackson, 
blew  up,  a  friend  of  mine  came  and  told  me  about 
a  new  steamboat,  the  Water  Witch,  which  he  was 
planning  to  run  as  a  competitor  with  the  Vanderbilt 
Brothers  on  the  Peekskill  route. 

He  talked  me  into  investing  a  thousand  dollars 
in  the  boat.  I  had  some  money  lying  around  loose. 
My  cattle  trips,  together  with  what  money  I  made 
from  running  the  "  Bull's  Head,"  had  been  bringing 
me  in  good  profits.  I  was  glad  to  make  a  small 
investment  in  the  steamboat  business,  even  though 
it  looked  somewhat  risky. 

And  it  was  risky.  The  thing  turned  out  a  loss 
the  very  first  season.  As  soon  as  we  put  our  boat 


96  THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

on,  Captain  Cornelius  Vanderbilt,  who  was  a  spunky 
fellow,  built  another  boat  for  the  Peekskill  route, 
which  he  called  the  Cinderella.  We  ran  each 
other  hard.  The  result  was  that  my  boat  lost  that 
season  $10,000. 

Cornelius  met  me  one  day  on  the  wharf,  just  at 
the  time  when  our  boat  was  running  behind  like 
old  Sambo.  He  was  in  high  spirits.  "You'll  meddle 
with  my  business,  will  you?"  said  he,  in  a  joking 
way.  "See  here,  you  drover,  let  me  tell  you  some 
thing.  You  don't  know  anything  about  running 
boats.  You  know  a  good  deal  about  judging  cattle. 
That's  your  line.  Boats  is  my  line.  Water  trans 
portation  is  a  trade  all  by  itself.  You  don't  under 
stand  it.  Stick  to  your  steers,  Drew,  stick  to  your 


steers." 


That  got  my  dander  up.  I  got  in  with  a  man 
named  Jim  Smith.  We  two  went  up  into  Putnam 
and  Westchester  Counties  and  stirred  things  up 
good  and  lively.  We  told  the  people  up  there  that 
they  had  been  charged  too  much  by  Vanderbilt. 
We  asked  them  to  come  in  and  put  money  into  our 
line,  because  we  were  an  independent  company  try 
ing  to  take  the  side  of  the  people  against  the  monopoly 
which  had  been  oppressing  them.  They  flocked 
into  our  pen,  because  this  Peekskill  route  was  their 
main  means  of  communication  with  New  York 
City.  It  stood  them  in  hand  to  build  up  a  competing 
line.  Now  we  Were  in  shape  for  business.  We  had 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW  97 

money  —  working  capital.  We  began  to  slash  the 
rates.  We  showed  the  Cinderella  what  business 
enterprise  was.  We  kept  at  it  until  the  fare  was  a 
shilling  —  twelve  and  a  half  cents  a  head  —  from 
Peekskill  to  the  city.  More  than  that,  we  showed 
the  other  boat  that  we  were  able  to  keep  that  game 
up  just  as  long  as  they  wanted  it. 

When  I  met  Captain  Cornelius  the  next  time, 
I  served  him  with  his  own  sauce.  I  said:  "Hello, 
Captain;  do  you  think  now  that  I  know  anything 
about  the  steamboat  business  ?" 

"Drew,"  said  he  —  Cornelius  was  a  frank  man 
to  own  up  when  he  had  made  a  mistake  or  had  mis 
judged  anybody,  "I  don't  think  anything  about 
it.  I  know  you  do."  Cornelius  was  very  nice  to 
me  after  that,  even  sociable-like.  He  used  to  come 
around  and  call  on  me.  We  got  to  be  good  friends. 

In  fact,  we  got  so  friendly  that  Smith  and  I  sold 
out  our  boat  to  Vanderbilt  and  let  him  have  control 
of  the  Peekskill  route  once  more.  We  did  this  with 
out  letting  the  other  fellows  in  our  company  know. 
We  were  afraid  they  might  put  some  obstacle  in  the 
way  if  they  knew  it  beforehand.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
when  they  heard  of  it  they  were  as  mad  as  a  wet  hen. 

"  Because,  Drew,"  said  they,  "we  went  in  with  you 
and  Smith  to  break  up  the  monopoly  and  in  order 
to  get  decent  transportation  for  our  region.  And 
now,  after  putting  our  hard  cash  into  the  thing 
and  providing  capital  enough  to  bring  the  other 


98  THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

side  to  their  knees,  you  skunks  up  and  sell  us  out  - 
you  make  terms  with  the  enemy  behind  our  backs, 
and  we  lose  what  we  put  in." 

But  I  had  other  irons  on  the  anvil.  I  didn't  feel 
called  upon  to  keep  myself  back,  just  in  order  to 
provide  better  transportation  for  Putnam  County 
farmers.  I  had  my  own  fortune  to  make  —  my  own 
career  to  carve  out.  Any  fellow,  except  he's  a 
natural-born  fool,  will  look  out  for  number  one  first. 
There  were  bigger  prizes  to  be  got  in  the  Hudson 
River  steamboat  business  than  the  Peekskill  route. 
It  was  these  that  I  was  after.  The  Hudson  River 
Association  was  running  a  line  of  boats  from  New 
York  to  Albany.  Captain  Vanderbilt  had  had  a 
falling  out  with  one  of  the  directors  of  that  asso 
ciation,  and  had  put  two  rival  boats  on  that  route 
so  successfully  that  he  had  compelled  them  to  buy 
him  out;  he  agreeing  to  withdraw  from  the  boat 
business  on  that  route  for  ten  years.  This  left  the 
coast  clear.  If  Vanderbilt,  by  running  competi 
tion  boats,  could  scare  them  into  buying  him  out  at 
a  good  figure,  I  didn't  see  why  I  couldn't  do  the 
same.  So  I  bought  two  boats,  put  them  on  the 
line  to  Albany,  and  ran  them  in  competition  with 
the  River  Association.  This  lasted  for  a  year.  At 
the  end  of  that  time  it  turned  out  as  I  had  expected. 
The  Association  took  me  in  with  them  on  a  pooling 
arrangement,  my  boats  sharing  the  total  earnings 
of  the  partnership. 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW  99 

This  lasted  a  little  while,  and  I  was  feeling  big 
to  be  in  with  the  company  that  was  running  so  big 
a  line  of  water  transportation.  By  and  by  I  wanted 
to  make  still  more  money.  So  I  hit  upon  a  scheme. 
While  I  was  still  in  the  Hudson  River  Association,  I 
put  another  boat  on  the  route  as  a  competitor.  Only, 
I  ran  it  under  the  name  of  another  fellow,  giving, 
out  that  he  was  the  owner,  so  as  to  keep  my  own 
part  in  the  matter  hid.  Then  I  cut  prices  on  that 
independent  boat  in  such  a  way  as  to  hurt  the  Asso 
ciation  like  sixty.  Whenever  we  would  hold  a 
directors'  meeting  of  the  Association,  if  they  were 
not  already  talking  about  it,  I  would  steer  the  con 
versation  around  to  the  subject  of  this  rival  boat, 
and  ask  if  something  couldn't  be  done  about  it. 
Because,  as  I  showed  them,  if  we  allowed  that  boat 
to  run  against  us  so  freely,  other  fellows  would  be 
encouraged  also  to  put  boats  on,  and  we  would  soon 
be  nowheres.  Finally  I  got  the  directors  to  pass 
a  resolution  to  buy  up  this  troublesome  rival.  And 
I  got  them  to  appoint  me  the  agent  to  go  and  see  her 
owner  with  our  proposition. 

"I  think  I  can  find  him  right  away,"  said  I. 
"His  office  is  only  a  spit  and  a  stride  from 
here,  so  to  speak."  They  said  they  would  hold 
the  meeting  until  I  got  back.  So  I  left  the  room, 
went  out,  walked  around  the  block,  and  came  back 
with  my  report. 

"A  penny  more  buys  the  whistle,"  said  I.     "I've 


ioo         THE   BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

seen  the  owner  and  he  is  willing  to  sell.  Only  our 
figure  isn't  quite  high  enough.  He  says  he  is  making 
money  hand  over  fist.  Pretty  soon  he  thinks  he 
will  be  able  to  put  another  boat  on.  But  he  doesn't 
want  to  be  mean.  He  is  willing  to  sell  if  we  do 
what  he  thinks  reasonable.  If  we  tack  $8,000  more 
onto  the  offer,  he'll  close  with  us." 

The  directors  debated.  The  boat  was  hurting 
us.  Anybody  could  see  that.  I  put  a  word  in  now 
and  then,  hinting  how  this  pestersome  competitor 
was  probably  in  a  position  to  hurt  us  still  more, 
unless  we  got  him  out  of  the  way  right  off.  Finally 
we  voted  to  give  the  $8,000  more  which  the  man 
had  asked.  I  left  them  there  in  the  meeting,  went 
out,  walked  around  the  block  again,  came  back 
and  said  the  man  had  accepted;  and  if  they  would 
make  out  the  papers  then  and  there  I  would  take 
them  over  to  him  and  get  the  deed  of  sale. 

I  saw  from  this  incident  that  I  could  match  my  wits 
against  most  anybody's.  Besides,  this  $8,000  which 
I  had  turned  into  my  pocket  out  of  the  company's 
funds  was  not  only  so  much  clear  gain  to  me,  but 
was  so  much  clear  loss  to  them.  So  now  I  became 
bold  as  a  lion.  I  saw  that  this  Hudson  River  route 
to  Albany  was  making  no  end  of  money,  and  I  wanted 
to  own  it,  hook,  line  and  sinker.  So  I  picked  a 
quarrel  with  one  of  my  fellow-directors,  and  started 
out  on  a  rival  line  of  my  own.  My  Westchester 
was  a  good  starter  in  this  fight.  Still  they  had  the 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          101 

best  of  me,  because  their  boat  was  the  handsomer. 
So  I  bought  the  Bright  Emerald  for  $26,000,  and 
ran  her  as  a  night  boat  to  Albany.  More  than  that, 
a  little  later  that  same  year  I  bought  the  Rochester  — 
paid  $50,000  for  her.  The  Hudson  River  Asso 
ciation  hit  back  by  buying  the  Swallow;  and  now 
the  fight  was  on.  We  raced  each  other  up  and  down 
the  river,  trying  to  beat  the  other  fellow  in  rates, 
and  boasting  that  each  had  the  swiftest  boat.  Finally, 
it  came  to  a  race  between  the  two.  Both  boats 
started  at  four  o'clock  one  afternoon,  from  the  dock 
near  to  the  ferry  which  ran  to  Jersey  City.  This 
was  in  1836.  Up  the  river  they  ran,  nip  and  tuck. 
The  Swallow  was  so  anxious  to  win  that  she 
speeded  her  engine  beyond  what  it  was  built  for. 
She  got  a  little  in  the  lead,  but  couldn't  hold  out. 
Just  below  Hudson  her  engine  broke  down.  She 
had  to  stop  a  few  minutes  for  repairs.  This  gave 

the    Rochester   the    lead.     By   the    time    the    Swal- 
i*  J 

low  got  under  headway  once  more,  my  boat  was 
so  far  in  front  that  she  couldn't  overtake  us.  At 
Van  Wies  Point,  a  hundred  and  forty  miles  from 
New  York,  the  race  ended.  My  Rochester  had 
won.  This  finished  the  fight.  I  had  got  the  fare 
down  so  low  that  the  Hudson  River  Association, 
weakened  as  they  were  by  that  loss  of  $8,000  (which 
was  just  so  much  additional  ammunition  in  my  own 
magazine),  gave  in.  I  bought  them  out.  And 
whereas  the  fare  had  been  so  low  until  then  that  I 


102         THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

myself  couldn't  have  stood  it  very  much  longer, 
now  that  I  was  in  control,  I  put  the  rate  to  Albany 
back  to  $3,  and  made  enough  money  to  pay  me  for 
all  I  had  lost  in  the  fight. 

Those  were  the  days  before  the  railroad.  Since 
the  Hudson  is  so  wide  and  deep  and  slow  a  river, 
while  both  banks  are  rocky  and  high  so  as  to  make 
railroad  engineering  difficult,  steamboat  navigation 
between  New  York  and  Albany  came  many  years 
before  the  railroad.  Thus  the  traffic  by  water  was 
large.  Competition  boats  were  springing  up  all 
the  time,  and  we  were  everlastingly  running  each 
other.  Steamboat  rivalry  was  very  high  in  those 
days.  In  making  speed  on  our  trips,  we  got  so  we 
didn't  make  full  stops  at  the  landings  to  let  passengers 
off.  When  we  would  come  near  to  a  landing,  we 
would  put  the  passengers  who  were  to  stop  off  in 
a  rowboat  and  towed  it  behind  the  steamboat.  Then 
the  steamboat  would  veer  in  towards  the  dock  and 
slacken  her  speed  a  little.  This  would  permit  the 
steersman  in  the  rowboat  to  sheer  his  boat  along 
side  the  dock,  and  as  she  went  past  the  passengers 
had  to  scramble  out  and  onto  the  dock.  Some 
times  they  landed  on  the  dock,  and  sometimes  in 
the  water.  One  day,  while  trying  to  make  this 
kind  of  a  landing  at  Poughkeepsie,  several  passengers 
were  drowned.  The  Legislature  then  passed  a  law 
putting  a  stop  to  these  landings  "on  the  fly."  This 
craze  for  speed  was  bad,  also,  because  it  put  the 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW          103 

boilers  under  such  pressure  of  steam  that  it  wasn't 
always  safe.  In  a  close  race  engineers  would  tie 
down  the  safety  valve,  plug  up  the  mercury  pipe  in 
the  pressure  gauge  so  the  stuff  wouldn't  blow  out, 
and  then  crowd  on  steam  until  the  boiler  plates 
would  bulge  out  into  bumps  as  big  as  a  saucepan; 
and  the  boiler  would  be  weaker  for  the  remainder 
of  its  life.  Besides  that,  the  pilots  would  take  a 
hand,  and  in  racing  with  a  rival  boat  would  some 
times  in  a  narrow  place  in  the  river  crowd  the  other 
boat  onto  the  shoals  or  against  a  barge. 

Rate-cutting  was  so  sharp  that  I  had  to  try  all 
kinds  of  schemes  and  dodges  to  keep  my  end  up. 
A  good  scheme,  I  found,  was  to  make  different 
rates  for  alternate  nights  —  fifty  cents  for  one  night, 
and  $1.50  for  the  next  night.  This  worked  well. 
For  people,  hearing  tell  of  the  lower  rates,  would 
forget  on  which  night  the  lower  rate  was  given,  and 
when  they  got  to  the  wharf  all  packed  up  and  ready 
to  travel,  were  usually  willing  to  pay  the  extra  rate 
rather  than  go  back  and  wait  over  another  day. 
Sometimes  we  carried  people  from  New  York  to 
Albany  for  two  shillings.  And  one  time,  when  a 
rival  boat,  the  Wave,  started  up,  our  boats  carried 
passengers  free.  The  Wave  wasn't  very  heavily 
financed.  She  lasted  just  three  days.  Sometimes 
we  would  even  pay  passengers  a  shilling  to  take  our 
boat  rather  than  the  boat  of  the  opposition  line. 
But  this  wasn't  so  wasteful  as  it  might  seem,  because 


104         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

after  you've  got  a  passenger  aboard  your  boat  and 
out  in  the  middle  of  the  river,  he's  at  your  mercy. 
For  the  first  hour  or  two  he  thinks  he's  getting  off 
fine.  But  by  and  by  he  gets  hungry;  besides, 
night  is  coming  on,  and  he  wants  a  place  to  sleep. 
Then  we  would  stick  on  enough  extra  for  meals 
and  sleeping  privilege,  not  only  to  make  up  what 
we  had  paid  him  for  taking  our  boat,  but  also  to 
pay  us  a  profit  besides. 

Since  I  was  now  the  chief  owner  of  the  big  line  of 
steamboats  on  the  river,  I  was  powerful,  and  new 
competitors  didn't  have  much  chance.  I  felt  that 
competition  had  to  be  put  down  with  a  strong  hand. 
There  was  a  man  by  the  name  of  Hancox.  He 
put  on  a  small  boat  in  opposition  to  our  regular 
line.  He  called  it  the  Napoleon.  It  was  a  poor 
boat.  It  didn't  have  much  show,  anyhow.  But  it 
wouldn't  do  to  take  any  chances.  His  New  York 
pier  was  further  down  than  ours.  So  one  morning 
in  June  our  boat,  the  DeWitt  Clinton,  was  waiting 
at  her  dock  working  her  engines  full  stroke.  When 
the  Napoleon  was  a  short  distance  from  the 
lower  side  of  the  dock,  the  hawsers  of  the  DeWitt 
Clinton  were  cut  with  a  sharp  axe.  She  sprung 
out  under  a  full  head  of  steam  and  hit  the  Napo 
leon  just  forward  of  the  wheel.  You'd  have  thought 
it  would  have  put  that  miserable  little  boat  out  of 
commission  altogether.  It  didn't  succeed  as  com 
pletely  as  that.  But  it  careened  her  over  until  her 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          105 

guard   was    under  water,  and  gave  her  passengers 
a  scare  that  they  didn't  forget  for  a  long  time. 

But  there  were  still  other  ways  of  getting  around  a 
competitor;  and  we  left  no  stone  unturned.  Hancox, 
who  wasn't  man  enough  to  continue  the  fight  on 
a  business  plane,  began  to  squeal.  He  put  out 
an  advertisement  like  this: 

"TO  THE  PUBLIC: 

"It  is  the  first  time  in  my  life  that  I  have  been 
forced  to  appeal  directly  to  the  public;  but  after 
having  been  persecuted  as  I  have  been  for  the  last 
three  days  by  one  of  the  greatest  monopolies  of  this 
country,  my  duty  towards  my  family,  as  I  owe  them 
a  support,  makes  it  necessary  that  I  should  inform 
the  public  of  my  situation. 

"I  purchased  the  steamboat  Napoleon  last 
winter,  and  associated  with  myself  E.  C.  Corwin, 
and  James  Cochrane,  who  became  equal  partners 
with  me  in  the  boat,  and  the  Articles  of  Co-partner 
ship  were  drawn  in  such  a  manner  that  the  boat 
was  to  run  to  Albany  and  nowhere  else.  Recently, 
the  monopoly,  after  ascertaining  that  I  was  deter 
mined  not  to  remove  the  boat  from  this  route  has 
made  extravagant  offers,  made  in  such  a  way  that 
I  was  to  be  left  alone;  and  consequently,  as  my 
means  are  small,  I  must,  without  doubt,  be  ruined 
and  my  family  beggared.  I  now  simply  appeal 
to  my  friends  to  assist  me  in  supporting  the  Napo 
leon;  for  as  long  as  she  does  not  lose,  no  money 
that  can  be  provided  will  prevent  me  from  running. 


106         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

But  if  she  does,  an  injunction  will  be  immediately 
served  on  the  boat.  I  can  also  state  that  E.  C. 
Corwin  has  spurned  their  offers,  even  at  a  sacrifice 
of  $6,000. 

"J.  W.  HANCOX." 

When  a  powerful  company  like  mine  is  threatened 
with  competitors  on  all  sides,  it  does  not  pay  to  fool 
with  a  man,  even  though  he  is  just  a  small  toad  in 
the  puddle.  One  of  the  ways  we  used  to  work  it 
in  order  to  get  passengers  and  hurt  an  opposing 
line,  was  by  employing  runners  to  go  to  the  other's 
dock  and  discourage  passengers  from  going  by  that 
line.  These  runners  used  to  be  very  enterprising 
fellows.  One  of  their  favourite  dodges  was  to  scare 
the  passengers  by  saying  that  the  boat  they  were 
about  to  take  was  unsafe,  in  fact  was  liable  to  blow 
up  any  minute.  This  dodge  was  particularly  use 
ful  if  any  of  the  passengers  were  women.  So  this 
man  Hancox,  a  few  days  later,  squealed  again,  in 
another  advertisement: 

"MONOPOLIES  AND  PERSECUTIONS 

"Are  the  people  aware  of  the  disgraceful  manner 
in  which  the  Hudson  River  monopoly  persecutes 
the  steamboat  Napoleon  and  her  owners,  especi 
ally  by  hiring  the  most  abandoned  and  profligate 
wretches  to  run  against  her  for  passengers  and  mak 
ing  use  of  the  most  disgraceful  language  to  prevent 
passengers  from  going  on  board  of  her  ?  They  are 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          107 

guilty  of  the  foulest  lies  and  assertions.  We  had 
been,  we  thought,  on  the  free  waters  of  the  United 
States,  but  if  this  is  the  manner  in  which  the  people 
are  to  be  driven  from  their  lawful  and  honourable 
pursuits,  away  then  with  our  boasted  freedom! 
"Are  the  people  aware  of  the  manner  in  which 
we  have  been  driven  from  pillar  to  post  for  the 
last  few  days  ?  When  they  found  they  could  not 
terrorize  the  owners  of  this  boat,  they  said,  'Let's 
crush  them.  They  are  poor  and  cannot  stand 
against  such  monopolies  as  we  are  but  a  few  days 
longer.'  Will  the  people  suffer  this,  or  will  they 
patronize  the  Napoleon  and  keep  the  fare  at  One 
Dollar,  and  thus  sustain  the  poor  in  fair  rates  and 
honourable  pursuits  ? 

"NAPOLEON." 


XII 


IT  WAS  a  caution,  the  shameful  practices 
that  some  of  the  steamboat  owners  back 
in  those  days,  in  their  ambition  to  get  started 
and  make  headway  against  our  company,  adopted. 
An  empty  leech  always  sucks  the  hardest,  and  a 
new  competitor  is  usually  a  fiercer  one  than  a  com 
petitor  of  long  standing.  They  used  to  make  use 
of  the  public  print  in  these  steamboat  rivalries.  If 
companies  are  going  to  fight  for  traffic,  let  them 
fight  it  out  in  their  own  field,  say  I.  There  was 
the  Alida,  which  was  some  time  later  put  on  the 
river  to  run  against  us  of  the  established  line. 
The  way  she  boasted  of  her  accomplishments  and 
ran  down  all  other  boats,  was  a  shame  to  see.  She 
put  out  a  card  like  this: 

"STEAMER  ALIDA 

"The  splendid  day  boat  Alida  is  now  the 
only  day  boat  for  passengers  to  depend  upon.  She 
makes  all  landings  and  arrives  in  Albany  and  Troy 
two  hours  ahead  of  the  old  boat,  the  Drew. 
The  Drew  is  twelve  years  old,  and  her  machinery 
is  now  so  worn  as  to  be  nearly  broken  down.  On 

108 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW          109 

Wednesday  her  passengers  did  not  arrive  in  Albany 
until  ten  o'clock  at  night,  too  late  for  the  cars,  and 
this  morning  she  was  seen  with  but  one  engine  at 
work.  Those  travelling  should  patronize  the  only 
opposition  on  the  river,  and  more  especially  as  she 
is  far  the  fastest  boat.  Fare,  .50." 

She  put  on  such  airs  as  a  speedy  boat  that  we 
couldn't  stand  it.  So  finally,  when  the  Daniel 
Drew  was  built  and  had  finished  her  first  season, 
this  advertisement  was  given  as  wide  circulation  as 
printer's  type  could  give  it: 

'The  steamboat  Daniel  Drew,  having  dis 
continued  her  trips  on  the  day-route  for  the  season, 
will  for  the  purpose  of  gratifying  the  curiosity  of 
certain  individuals,  hold  herself  in  readiness  until 
the  27th  of  the  present  month,  to  make  a  trial  trip 
from  New  York  to  Albany  with  any  other  steamboat 
now  built,  for  $1,000  or  upwards,  on  one  week's 
notice  from  this  date,  the  boats  to  start  from  the 
foot  of  Thirtieth  Street,  North  River,  at  eight  a.  m., 
to  run  with  their  usual  tackle  as  used  in  their  ordinary 
business.  Any  person  or  persons  having  a  steamer  that 
they  think  can  beat  her  have  an  opportunity  to  make 
a  profitable  trip  by  calling  on  the  subscriber." 

They  didn't  accept  the  offer.  So  we  didn't 
have  to  run  the  race;  but  we  were  ready  for  them. 
After  getting  control  of  the  Hudson  River  Asso 
ciation,  I  got  in  with  Isaac  Newton.  Up  to  then 
I  had  been  in  with  a  couple  of  men,  Kelley  and 
Richards.  But  I  wanted  to  be  in  big  company. 


no    THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL  DREW 

Isaac  Newton  was  a  leading  steamboat  man  of 
New  York  City.  The  kind  of  a  proposition  I  made 
to  him  was  this:  We  would  start  a  line  of  steam 
boats,  and  call  it  the  "People's  Line."  He  would 
be  the  president  and  I  the  treasurer;  and  we  would 
show  the  country  what  steamboating  ought  to  be. 
He  fell  in  with  the  idea  and  we  formed  the  line. 
He  owned  the  North  American.  That  was  the 
first  steamboat  to  use  blowers  for  an  artificial  blast 
in  the  furnace  of  the  boilers  run  by  an  independent 
engine.  He  also  owned  the  South  American. 
These  were  good  boats.  But  when  we  formed 
the  "People's  Line"  we  built  a  great  new  boat 
and  called  it  the  Isaac  Newton.  It  was  the  first 
of  the  floating  palaces  that  were  soon  to  make  the 
Hudson  River  famous  throughout  the  world.  It 
was  three  hundred  feet  long,  and  had  berths  for  500 
passengers.  When  she  started  off  on  her  first  trip 
the  people  crowded  the  wharf  black  to  see  her  sail 
away.  She  was  so  big  they  thought  she  was  too 
bulky  to  be  pushed  against  the  tide,  and  that  she 
would  either  tip  over,  break  down,  or  something 
else.  But  she  sailed  away  fine  as  anything.  And 
the  people  clapped  their  hands.  Then  we  added 
the  Knickerbocker.  She  was  built  for  us  by 
Smith  &  Dimon.  She  was  a  fine  boat  and  had 
as  many  as  twelve  staterooms  in  the  ladies'  saloon. 
We  took  the  engine  for  her  out  of  the  old  DeWitt 
Clinton. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL  DREW    in 

Pretty  soon  We  bought  the  "  Oregon "  of  George 
Law  —  "Live  Oak  George"  was  the  name  he 
was  known  by  in  steamboat  circles,  he  was  that 
brisk  and  fearless.  He  was  the  one  who  offered 
to  run  his  boat  with  only  one  wheel  against  the  old 
Hendrick  Hudson,  for  $1,000,  and  wasn't  taken 
up  on  it.  The  Oregon  was  a  boat  we  wanted 
for  our  line;  because  Law  had  made  her  well-known. 
I  in  particular  was  anxious  to  get  her,  because  she 
was  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  Captain  Vanderbilt.  Van- 
derbilt  and  I  never  got  along  very  well  together. 
From  the  first  we  were  more  or  less  running  each 
other.  This  Oregon  had  beat  his  boat,  the 
Commodore  Vanderbilt  (he  got  to  be  known  as 
"The  Commodore "  after  a  while,  because  he  owned 
so  many  boats;  but  when  I  first  met  him,  he  was 
just  plain  "Captain")  in  that  famous  race  from 
New  York  to  Croton  Point  and  return.  It  was 
a  distance  of  75  miles.  Vanderbilt  was  all-fired 
set  on  winning  that  race.  He  made  big  prepara 
tions.  Got  his  boat  in  the  best  of  trim.  The 
people  saw  that  he  was  going  to  win  or  bust.  So 
everybody  came  out  to  see.  It  was  almost  as  excit 
ing  as  the  bulletin  boards  in  the  city  when  they 
announced  Scott's  victory  at  Churubusco  (because 
this  was  the  time  of  the  Mexican  war,  and  there 
were  a  lot  of  New  York  boys  in  Scott's  army).  Well, 
they  ran  the  race,  and  the  Oregon  won.  They 
said  the  race  might  have  turned  out  different,  only 


ii2         THE  BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW 

Vanderbilt  got  worked  up  with  excitement,  and 
mixed  in  at  the  wrong  moment.  When  his  boat 
was  about  to  turn  the  point  up  at  the  far  end  of 
the  course,  be  grabbed  the  control  of  the  thing  away 
from  the  pilot.  Wrong  signals  were  given  to  the 
engineer.  Instead  of  slowing  up  to  make  a  turn, 
the  boat  went  around  at  full  speed.  This  lost  her 
so  much  distance  that  the  Oregon  got  the  lead, 
kept  it,  and  won  the  race.  It  was  an  awful  blow 
to  the  Commodore's  pride.  In  fact,  it  was  because 
he  felt  so  sore  over  it,  that  I  wanted  to  own  the 
boat  that  had  beat  him.  So  we  took  the  Oregon, 
and  run  it  on  our  line. 

I  have  always  suspicioned  that  this  defeat  was 
one  of  the  things  that  disgusted  the  Commodore 
with  the  steamboat  business,  and  made  him 
leave  it  for  other  things.  Because  pretty  soon 
he  was  giving  all  of  his  time  to  railroading,  and 
didn't  bother  with  steamboats  much  more.  When 
railroads  were  first  coming  in,  he  had  stuck  up  his 
nose  at  them.  In  talking  with  me  about  them,  he 
would  refer  to  them  with  a  sneer,  as  "them  things 
that  go  on  land."  He  was  a  lover  of  water  craft, 
and  didn't  like  to  see  anything  come  along  that 
promised  to  hurt  sail  and  steam  boats.  But  when 
he  lost  that  race  to  the  Oregon  it  hurt  his  pride 
something  terrible.  It  wasn't  long  after  that  before 
he  changed  his  mind  about  railroads,  and  was  after 
their  shares  lickety  split. 


XIII 

I  WAS  now  as  busy  as  a    dog    licking    a    dish. 
For  I   was   soon  to    be    interested    in    those 
same    railroad    contraptions    that    Vanderbilt 
had  gone  into.     I  had  lots  of  faith  in  him  and  his 
judgment,  since  he  seemed  to  turn  into  money  every 
thing  he  put  his  hand  to.     And  seeing  I  had  done  so 
well  by  following  his  lead  into  the  steamboat  business, 
I  felt  I  couldn't  make  much  mistake  by  following 
his  lead  once  again,  into  the  railroad  business. 

The  spread  of  railroads  was  now  almost  as 
rapid  as  the  spread  of  steamboats  had  been  a  few 
years  before.  When  once  it  was  found  that  loco 
motives  could  pull  a  train  up  a  grade,  it  was  a 
discovery.  Because  now  railroads  could  be  built 
even  through  hilly  country.  When  iron  rails  came 
in  and  took  the  place  of  the  old  straps  laid  on  beams 
of  wood,  which  were  everlastingly  curling  up  into 
snake-heads  and  derailing  the  train,  that  was  another 
big  invention.  By  now  it  was  seen  that  the  railroad 
was  not  just  a  curious  toy,  but  was  a  practical  way 
of  getting  across  the  country;  and  every  city  and 
town  wanted  one. 

I  didn't  have  to  go  out  of  my  way  to  learn  about 

"3 


ii4         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

this  new  invention.  It  crowded  itself  in  on  me. 
Along  the  entire  length  of  my  steamboat  route  from 
New  York  to  Albany,  one  of  these  new-fangled  things 
was  a-building  —  a  railroad  was  being  cut  through 
the  steep  rocks  on  the  east  shore  of  the  river.  By 
and  by  when  it  had  got  up  from  New  York  as 
far  as  Poughkeepsie,  we  ran  a  line  of  steamboats 
from  Albany  to  Poughkeepsie,  connecting  with  the 
train  from  New  York.  When  the  road  was  finished 
clean  up  to  Albany,  the  railroad  crowd  were  so 
boastful,  they  thought  they  were  going  to  run  steam 
boats  off  the  face  of  the  earth.  And  they  made  no 
bones  in  saying  so.  President  Boorman  of  this 
Hudson  River  road  came  to  me  just  as  soon  as 
the  last  rail  to  Albany  had  been  spiked  down. 

"Drew,"  said  he,  "you  might  just  as  well  hang 
up  your  fiddle.  We've  got  you  whipped.  Own  up. 
Your  steamboats  can't  hold  out  against  these  things 
that  go  along  the  rails  30  miles  an  hour  like  a  streak 
of  lightning.  Give  up  the  boat  business.  Boats 
can't  live  on  the  Hudson  River  any  longer.  It  won't 
pay  you  to  fight." 

But  I  wasn't  going  to  knuckle  under.  I  told  him, 
modest-like,  that  he  did  have  a  big  thing  there  in 
those  steam  buggies  of  his.  But  I  was  going  to  stick 
to  steamboating  for  a  spell  yet.  And  as  to  driving 
me  off  the  river,  I  guessed  I  could  take  care  of  that. 

And  I  did,  too.  Even  after  the  railroad  got 
into  full  running,  my  boats  carried  just  as  many 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW          115 

passengers,  yes,  even  more  than  before.  The  rail 
road  got  people  used  to  travelling,  and  that  helped 
all  kinds  of  transportation.  Besides,  the  great 
West  was  beginning  to  open  up.  There  was  Kansas, 
and  the  rush  of  people  to  get  out  there  and  save  it 
from  being  a  slave  state.  For  John  Brown  and 
his  Kansas  doings  got  into  the  papers  and  helped 
to  make  the  prairies  known  to  the  people.  Lots 
of  families,  whether  they  cared  about  the  darkey 
question  or  not,  got  the  fever  to  go  West.  And 
what  pleasanter  way  could  there  be  than  to  sail  up 
the  Hudson  to  Albany,  change  there  to  an  Erie 
Canal  boat,  out  through  the  Mohawk  valley  to 
Buffalo,  and  then  by  water  through  the  Great  Lakes  ? 
It  was  a  sight  cheaper  to  cart  household  goods 
that  way  than  to  pay  railroad  freight  charges. 

But  I  haven't  any  cause  to  poke  ridicule  at  rail 
roads.  They  have  proved  mighty  good  friends  to 
me  and  my  fortunes.  For  it  wasn't  very  long  after 
this  that  I  got  into  the  business  myself.  It  came 
about  something  like  this:  Transportation  was 
stretching  out  from  New  York  City  not  only  in 
a  northerly  direction  —  but  Boston  and  New  York 
also  wanted  to  be  tied  to  each  other  by  a  fast  route. 
Boston  and  New  York  were  almost  as  closely  knit 
together  as  Albany  and  New  York.  People  and 
goods  were  going  back  and  forth  between  them  all 
the  time.  I  knew  this,  because  my  "Bull's  Head" 
tavern  had  been  on  the  highway  which  led  from 


u6    THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL  DREW 

New  York  City  down  east  to  Boston.  But  the 
stage-coach  couldn't  take  care  of  the  traffic  now. 
So  a  line  of  steamboats  started  up  from  New  York 
out  through  Long  Island  Sound.  I  and  George 
Law — "Live  Oak  George"  —  established  it.  That 
bridged  over  a  good  part  of  the  distance  between 
the  two  cities.  Then  from  Stonington  a  railroad 
was  built  the  rest  of  the  way  to  Boston.  The  traffic 
that  went  over  this  part-water-and-part-rail  line, 
soon  showed  that  it  was  to  be  a  money-maker;  that 
this  was  what  the  two  cities  had  long  been  waiting 
for.  As  soon  as  I  saw  that,  I  wanted  to  have  control 
of  the  railroad  end  of  the  route,  as  well  as  of  the 
steamboat  end.  So  Vanderbilt  and  I  went  in  and 
bought  enough  shares  of  the  "  Boston  and  Stoning 
ton  Railroad"  to  control  it.  In  fact,  his  family 
and  I  were  pretty  closely  tied  up  together  in  those 
days.  Because  at  this  time,  besides  the  partnership 
between  him  and  me  in  this  railroad,  his  brother 
Jake  was  with  me  in  the  Stonington  Line  of  steam 
boats.  But  my  life  hasn't  had  so  much  to  do  with 
Jake.  He  was  never  the  pusher  that  his  brother  was. 
I  was  getting  busy  now  in  still  another  direction. 
Some  time  before  this,  since  the  best  fishing  is  in 
deep  waters,  I  had  become  a  broker  in  Wall  Street. 
By  this  time  that  section  of  New  York  City  had 
gone  through  a  wondrous  change  from  what  it  had 
been  in  my  first  visits  to  the  city.  Wall  Street  wasn't 
any  longer  the  market  place  of  a  big  village.  It 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          117 

was  becoming  a  money  centre.  Banking  houses 
were  going  up  there,  and  an  Exchange  Room  for 
trading  in  railroad  and  steamboat  shares.  Rail 
roads  now  were  spreading  over  the  country  like 
measles  in  a  boarding  school.  There  was  need 
of  some  place  where  their  shares  could  be  bought 
and  sold.  Wall  Street  got  to  be  that  place.  The 
big  commercial  men  of  the  nation  were  in  New 
York.  They  lived  in  the  aristocratic  section,  on 
Pearl,  Broad,  Water,  Beaver  and  Whitehall  Streets. 
So  it  was  natural  that  they  should  locate  the  Stock 
Exchange  right  in  the  centre  of  their  part  of  the  town, 
at  the  corner  of  Broad  and  Wall  Streets. 

My  banking  enterprise  up  at  the  "Bull's  Head" 
had  got  me  more  or  less  familiar  with  handling 
money.  I  had  learned  to  find  my  way  around  in 
Wall  Street's  doings.  So  now  I  started  in  on 
my  own  account.  The  firm  was  "  Drew,  Robinson 
&  Co."  Robinson  was  a  Nelson  Robinson  whom 
I  had  known  up  at  Carmel.  He  had  also  been  in 
the  menagerie  business  —  used  to  ride  in  the  ring, 
all  bespangled  with  shiny  gold  and  silver  lace.  As 
soon  as  the  fiddler  was  through  (because  in  our 
old  circus  days  they  didn't  have  the  big  brass  bands 
that  circuses  have  now),  the  clowns  would  come 
leaping  into  the  ring  with  a  "Here  we  are  again," 
and  then  Robinson  and  the  rest  of  the  circus  per 
formers  would  parade  in  and  go  through  their 
monkey-shines.  The  "Co."  in  our  firm  name 


n8    THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL  DREW 

stood  for  Robert  Weeks  Kelly  (the  Weekses  were 
also  big  people  in  the  circus  business  up  in  Carmel). 
This  Kelly,  though,  had  made  most  of  his  money 
in  the  drover  business.  He  was  a  shrewd,  thrifty 
drover,  and  after  Chamberlain  died  he  became 
my  son-in-law.  So  since  we  three  knew  each  other 
well,  we  started  together  in  the  banking  and  broker 
business. 

With  so  many  fish-poles  going  at  once,  I  was 
kept  tied  close  to  business.  Never  was  much  of 
a  fellow  to  take  vacations,  anyhow,  and  during 
these  days  I  wouldn't  have  had  a  chance  even  if 
I'd  wanted  to.  There  were  some  business  men 
who  kept  drawing  off  their  thoughts  to  politics  and 
affairs  of  state.  And  if  a  fellow  had  been  so 
minded,  he  could  have  taken  up  a  deal  of  his  time 
in  talking  about  such  things,  because  there  was 
lots  of  excitement  those  days.  There  was  the  Mexi 
can  war.  And  then  the  Slave  question  down  South 
got  people  all  stirred  up.  But  I  was  too  busy  to 
bother  with  such  things.  When  a  fellow  is  making 
money  he  gets  busier  every  year.  Because  the  more 
money  he  makes,  the  more  investments  he  has  to 
search  out,  in  order  to  keep  his  money  working. 
And  the  more  investments  he  has,  the  more  money 
he's  going  to  make.  Which  means  still  more  time 
in  finding  safe  employment  for  it.  And  so  on. 
Such  far-off  things  as  wars  in  Mexico,  Missouri 
Compromises,  and  Slave  Wars  in  Kansas,  could 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW          119 

not  be  allowed  to  come  in  and  take  my  thoughts 
away  from  business. 

But  I  did  now  and  then  take  time  off  to  see  the 
sights.  For  instance,  there  was  the  big  celebration 
when  Henry  Clay  visited  the  city.  He  came  up  to 
be  present  when  the  body  of  President  John  Quincy 
Adams  was  brought  on  to  New  York  from  Washing 
ton.  I  had  always  regarded  Clay  as  a  great  man. 
He  had  been  the  one  to  import  Devons,  Herefords 
and  a  lot  of  fine  short-horns  from  England,  and  was 
helping  to  introduce  these  breeds  into  the  Kentucky 
and  Ohio  lands.  New  England's  favourite  was 
the  Devon.  There  was  also  the  long-horn  Texas 
cattle,  which  was  being  boasted  about  by  the  West 
erners.  But  I  never  took  much  to  those  long-horns. 
They  are  but  one  remove  above  the  buffalo,  and 
are  ungainly  critters.  The  polled  Durham  of  Ohio 
is  far  better  for  ordinary  purposes,  being  quiet  at 
the  feeding  rack  and  troughs.  I  kind  of  took  to 
Henry  Clay  because  he  was  so  hot  to  get  the  farmers 
out  in  his  section  of  the  country  to  take  up  with 
high-grade  breeds  of  cattle.  On  his  farm  in  Ken 
tucky  they  used  to  say  that  he  had  as  fine  a  fat  stock 
array  as  a  man  could  ask  to  see.  Those  Western 
soils,  anyhow,  helped  a  whole  lot  in  improving  the 
breeds  of  live  stock.  There  was  the  red  hog  of  New 
Jersey,  which  formed  the  foundation  for  the  large 
and  heavy  animals  exported  to  the  West  Indies; 
when  sent  West  it  took  on  plumpness  and  became 


120         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

that  fine-grained  meat  which  corn-growing  countries 
always  give  to  a  healthy  breed.  The  same  thing 
happened  with  the  white  hog  of  Pennsylvania. 
Before  he  was  sent  to  Northern  Ohio,  he  was  a 
tough  and  lanky  animal;  but  out  there  he  became 
fine  and  plump.  Out  West  also  they  got  to  crossing 
the  Berkshire  and  China  breeds  upon  the  common 
hog,  and  made  something  finer  than  had  ever  been 
seen  before.  Those  Western  States  were  great 
in  improving  the  quality  of  butcher's  meat.  Henry 
Clay  would,  to  my  thinking,  have  made  an  A  No.  i 
President  if  he  had  ever  been  elected. 

But  after  a  while  we  didn't  have  so  much  time 
over  at  our  banking  house  of  "Drew,  Robinson 
&  Co/'  for  discussing  breeds  of  cattle.  We  had 
our  hands  full  in  handling  the  business  that  began 
to  come  in.  When  you  are  loaning  money,  buying 
and  selling  railroad  and  steamboat  shares,  and  such 
like,  it  keeps  you  going.  If  you  don't  look  out, 
one  slip  will  make  an  almighty  loss.  In  fact  our 
house  made  a  slip  at  the  start.  One  of  our  cus 
tomers  was  a  fellow  we  had  known  for  some  time. 
He  owed  us  $30,000.  My  partners  were  for  extend 
ing  the  loan.  I  was  against  it.  They  begged  - 
talked  about  old  friendship's  sake,  and  such  like. 
They  got  me  to  consent.  Result  —  we  lost  the 
money.  That  taught  me  a  lesson.  Sentiment  is 
all  right  up  in  the  part  of  the  city  where  your  home 
is.  But  downtown,  No.  Down  there  the  dog  that 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          121 

snaps  the  quickest  gets  the  bone.  Friendship  is  very 
nice  for  a  Sunday  afternoon  when  you're  sitting 
around  the  dinner  table  with  your  relations,  talking 
about  the  sermon  that  morning.  But  nine  o'clock 
Monday  morning,  notions  should  be  brushed  away  like 
cobwebs  from  a  machine.  I  never  took  any  stock  in  a 
man  who  mixed  up  business  with  anything  else.  He 
can  go  into  other  things  outside  of  business  hours. 
But  when  he's  in  his  office,  he  ought  not  to  have  a  rela 
tion  in  the  world  —  and  least  of  all  a  poor  relation. 
I  also  saw  from  this  incident  that  I  was  not  a 
good  hand  for  working  along  with  other  people, 
being  better  fitted  to  go  it  alone,  so  to  speak.  I 
saw,  or  perhaps  kind  of  felt,  that  there  was  going 
to  be  lots  of  money  in  the  stock-market  business. 
So  1  began  to  turn  my  efforts  more  and  more  in  that 
direction.  And  if  my  partners  wouldn't  go  with 
me  into  speckilation,  I  could  go  without  them.  When 
you  are  doing  just  a  banking  business  and  nothing 
else,  your  returns  may  be  safe,  but  they're  almighty 
slow.  The  same  with  running  a  steamboat,  or  a 
railroad.  But  if  you  can  buy  up  the  shares  of  a 
company  and  sell  them  again  inside  of  a  year  or 
two,  you  can  often  turn  more  money  into  your  purse 
in  a  twelve-month  than  you  can  make  by  slow 
business  profits  in  twelve  years.  For  instance,  there 
was  the  Lake  Champlain  Line  of  steamboats,  which 
we  controlled.  We  might  have  just  settled  down, 
and  in  a  poky  way  run  those  boats  and  made  our 


122         THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

profits,  slow  and  sure.  But  I  was  in  for  bigger 
things.  So  we  sold  that  line  to  the  Saratoga  and 
Whitehall  railroad,  and  I  put  the  money  in  the 
form  of  cash  for  speckilating.  My  experiences  had 
told  me  that  I  had  skill  in  getting  deals  worked 
through,  and  that  these  would  bring  quicker  gains 
than  the  slow-poke  method  of  regular  business. 
So  I  went  into  operations  in  the  stock  market. 

People  have  coupled  my  name  along  with  Fisk 
and  Gould.  But  it  will  be  seen  from  what  is  here 
being  set  down  that  I  was  in  advance  of  both  of 
them.  Here  I  was,  an  operator  in  Wall  Street, 
when  the  Stock  Exchange  was  new.  I  was  a  middle- 
aged  man  on  the  Street  when  Jim  Fisk  was  a  baby 
in  the  cradle,  and  before  Jay  Gould  had  seen  the 
light  of  day.  I  might  almost  say  I  was  their  Wall 
Street  parent.  Many  of  their  schemes  and  methods 
they  learned  from  me.  I  was  the  pioneer.  The 
way  to  manipulate  stocks  and  work  Wall  Street 
dickers  was  well-nigh  unknown  when  I  first  went 
into  the  business.  I  thought  up  many  of  the  schemes 
out  of  my  own  brain.  Those  who  came  after  had 
nothing  to  do  but  copy  my  ideas.  Gould  and  Fisk  - 
they  were  pupils  of  mine,  both  of  them.  I  helped 
to  make  them.  They  were  a  pair  of  colts;  I  broke 
them  in.  It  is  easy  now  to  lay  out  a  campaign  for 
working  the  market.  But  back  in  my  early  days, 
it  wasn't  so  easy  by  a  long  shot.  I  had  to  invent 
ways  of  doing  it.  I  had  no  guides  to  steer  by. 


XIV 

I  WAS  getting  now  to  be  a  power  in  the  finan 
cial  market.  Accordingly  I  wanted  to  live 
right  in  the  city,  and  no  longer  out  in  the 
suburbs.  I  got  a  house  on  Bleecker  Street,  just 
where  Mulberry  Street  runs  into  it  —  No.  52 
Bleecker,  it  was  —  the  upper  corner  towards  the 
Bowery.  That  section  had  formerly  been  the 
blackberry  region  for  Manhattan  Island.  When  I 
was  at  the  "  Bull's  Head, "  Bleecker  Street  was  a  lane 
lined  with  blackberry  bushes,  and  in  the  berry 
season  was  a  great  place  for  picnics  from  far  and 
near.  It  was  also  a  good  region  for  snipe  shooting, 
and  also  for  hunting  rabbits.  But  by  now  you 
would  hardly  have  recognized  the  place.  For  the 
city  had  grown  up  into  it.  The  digging  out  of  the 
stream  just  below  into  a  canal  (where  Canal  Street 
now  runs)  had  helped  to  drain  the  frog-meadows 
up  in  the  Bleecker  Street  section  of  the  island.  The 
Broad  Way  was  pushed  up  to  Union  Square  (as  it 
was  by  and  by  called),  and  tacked  onto  the  Bloom- 
ingdale  Road  which  continued  it  up  to  the  middle 
of  the  island  kitty-corner.  Where  Grace  Church 
now  stands,  there  used  to  be  an  old  high-peaked 

123 


i24         THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

barn;  but  that  farm  was  now  being  cut  up  into 
building  lots,  and  criss-crossed  by  city  streets. 

The  church  I  attended  was  on  Mulberry  Street, 
not  far  below  my  house.  And  now  I  set  in  to  go 
to  meeting  every  Sunday;  I  was  also  present  on 
prayer-  and  class-meeting  nights.  I  never  lost  my 
religion  after  this.  You  won't  read  in  these  papers 
of  any  more  backslidings  by  Dan  Drew.  It  took 
a  good  deal  of  the  grace  of  God  to  reach  me.  But 
when  finally  he  got  me  landed  safe  and  sound  within 
the  fold,  he  held  on  to  me.  I  have  never  slid  back 
from  that  time  to  this.  Of  course,  I  have  had 
my  cold  seasons.  Every  person  has  those.  You 
can't  live  on  a  mountain  all  the  time.  Now  and 
then  I  have  found  myself  in  the  valley.  But  I  have 
never  failed  to  get  back  to  the  mountain-top  experi 
ences. 

We  used  to  have  glorious  times  in  that  old 
Mulberry  Street  Church.  From  the  Bowery  village 
by  Peter  Cooper's  grocery  store,  where  he  was 
superintendent  of  the  Sunday-school,  the  church 
moved  first  down  to  the  north  side  of  Seventh  Street 
But  the  revivals  there  were  so  powerful,  the  neigh 
bours  began  to  object.  Some  good  saint  would 
get  the  power  and  would  be  well-nigh  out  of  his 
senses.  Suddenly  he  would  come  to,  and  with 
mighty  "hallelujahs"  would  tell  of  the  things  he 
had  seen.  I  don't  see  why  people  should  object 
to  shouting  Christians.  I'm  not  a  shouter  myself. 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL    DREW         125 

But  in  a  love  feast  I  can  get  good  and  happy  along 
with  the  rest.  And  I  like  it.  If  the  saints  on  earth 
haven't  any  right  to  be  happy,  I  should  like  to  know 
who  have.  Come,  let  our  joys  be  known,  say  I. 
We  are  travelling  through  Immanuers  ground, 
to  fairer  worlds  on  high.  Let  those  refuse  to  sing 
who  never  knew  our  Lord.  The  soul  that  knows 
its  sins  forgiven  by  the  atoning  Blood  applied,  and 
has  had  vouchsafed  unto  it  the  sprinkled  conscience 
and  the  inward  witness,  let  that  man  raise  his  Eben- 
ezer,  say  I,  and  shout  his  joys  abroad. 

Well,  as  I  started  to  say,  some  of  the  neighbours 
didn't  just  take  to  the  revivals  that  used  to  be  held 
in  the  old  Seventh  Street  Church;  and  in  those  days 
the  preacher  would  get  up  a  revival  every  winter. 
I  must  confess  that  some  of  the  meetings  did  last 
pretty  late  into  the  night.  But  so  much  the  better. 
When  a  sinner  has  sung:  "Show  pity,  Lord,  oh, 
Lord,  forgive;  let  a  repenting  rebel  live!"  and  sung 
it  over  and  over  until  his  knees  are  well-nigh  cramped 
beneath  him,  and  then  when  he  is  ready  to  despair, 
for  seeing  himself  slipping  down  the  hill  into  the 
Devil's  lap,  if  the  burden  all  to  once  rolls  off  from 
him  and  he  gets  through  and  comes  out  onto  the 
Hallelujah  side,  that  man  isn't  going  to  let  that 
meeting  come  to  an  end  very  soon.  He  is  going 
to  relate  his  experiences.  He  is  going  to  tell  what 
the  Lord  has  done  for  him,  and  keep  on  telling. 
And  he  is  going  to  wrestle  with  other  sinners  at 


126         THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

the  mercy  seat  until  he  gets  them  through  also. 
And  if  it's  twelve  o'clock  midnight  before  the  meeting 
is  over,  he  isn't  going  to  care. 

But  the  neighbours  did.  They  said  the  church 
was  a  bad  thing  for  property  values.  So  they  raised 
some  money  and  bought  two  lots  near  Third  Avenue. 
These  they  gave  to  the  trustees  of  the  church  on 
condition  that  they  move  the  meeting-house  over 
there.  The  trustees  consented  and  the  building 
was  put  up.  One  day  Zekiel  Moore,  a  merchant 
and  member  of  the  Seventh  Street  Church,  saw  a 
vacant  plot  on  Mulberry  Street  near  Bleecker,  and 
got  the  idea  of  building  a  church  there.  So  Jake 
Bunting  called  a  meeting  at  his  house  on  Crosby 
Street,  and  the  thing  was  started.  There  were 
great  doings  when  our  new  meeting-house  was  finally 
dedicated.  Dr.  Bangs  preached  the  sermon  that 
afternoon.  How  some  things  stand  out  in  a  person's 
memory!  It  was  from  Luke  I,  79.  The  sermon 
was  meant  mostly  for  us  who  were  saved.  This 
was  as  it  should  be.  A  dedication  sermon  is  to  the 
saints  rather  than  to  the  sinners. 

The  preacher  described  the  darkness  out  of  which 
we  had  been  delivered.  I  could  almost  feel  the 
heat  of  the  flames  as  he  pictured  the  thing,  and 
showed  how  we  had  been  snatched  as  a  brand  from 
the  burning.  Although  I  had  been  in  the  back 
sliding  class  often  and  long,  I  was  no  longer  in  that 
state  of  alienation  nor  appointed  unto  wrath.  My 


THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          127 

delight  was  now  in  witnessing  and  testimonies.  I 
could  with  joy  gaze  into  the  lower  depths,  which 
once  used  to  send  shivers  and  goose-flesh  all  over  me. 

"Waken  and  mourn,  ye  heirs  of  hell, 
Let  stubborn  sinners  fear; 
You  must  be  driven  from  earth,  to  dwell 
A  long  forever  there. 

See  how  the  pit  gapes  wide  for  you, 
And  flashes  in  your  face. 
And  thou,  my  soul,  look  downwards  too, 
And  sing  recovering  grace!" 

There  was  a  time  when  that  sort  of  thing  would 
have  made  me  hang  onto  the  seat  in  front  to  keep 
from  slipping  down  into  the  pit.  But  now  my  feet 
had  been  placed  upon  the  rock.  I  was  no  longer 
building  on  the  sands,  but  on  solid  foundations. 
Hay  and  wheat  and  stubble  —  the  fire  will  consume 
these.  But  the  rock  stands,  when  the  nearer  waters 
roll. 

These  thoughts  may  seem  poky  and  dull  to  some. 
That  is  because  they  have  never  experienced  religion. 
It  was  in  this  Mulberry  Street  Church  and  in  the 
big  marble  church  on  Fourth  Avenue,  which  a  little 
later  I  was  instrumental  in  building,  that  I  spent  a 
good  share  of  my  time  out  of  business  hours.  When 
a  man  goes  to  prayer  meeting  and  class  meeting 
two  nights  of  the  week,  and  to  church  twice  on  Sun- 


128         THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

day,  and  on  week-days  works  at  his  office  from 
morning  till  night,  his  life  is  made  up  of  about  two 
things  —  work  and  worship. 

In  order  to  know  what  a  man  really  is,  you've 
got  to  see  him  now  and  then  away  from  his  office. 
Business  isn't  the  whole  of  life.  Business  shows 
one  side  of  a  man.  His  church  and  home  life  show 
the  other  side.  That  is  where  a  good  many  of  the 
revilings  against  me  have  come  from.  They  have 
come  from  people  who  have  seen  me  only  at  business. 
Everybody  knows  that  business  is  one  thing,  and  a 

man's  church  and  home  life  another  thing.     I  have 

& 

had  to  sharpen  my  wits  — count  the  pennies  close  - 
in  order  to  make  money.  But  there  has  been  some 
thing  to  Dan  Drew  besides  just  getting  rich,  and  I 
want  people  to  know  what  this  other  something  is. 
Unless  a  business  man  is  also  a  converted  man, 
with  the  witness  of  the  spirit  within  him,  he  is  like 
a  hog  under  an  apple  tree  —  so  busy  crunching 
the  fruit  that  he  doesn't  have  time  to  look  up  to 
where  the  fruit  comes  from.  It  isn't  fair  to  judge 
a  man  by  his  down-town  life  alone.  Business, 
anyhow,  slobbers  a  fellow  up.  It's  like  teaching  a  calf 
to  drink  out  of  a  pail  —  you're  sure  to  get  splashed 
and  dirty.  Business  is  a  scramble  for  the  cash. 
Nobody  looks  for  manners  around  the  meal  tub. 


XV 


RAILROADS  were  now  all  the  rage.  And 
at  about  this  time  the  greatest  railroad 
in  the  world,  for  its  day,  was  finished, 
"The  New  York  &  Lake  Erie."  It  was  called, 
for  short,  the  "Erie."  I  was  soon  to  make  a  bag 
of  money  out  of  this  Erie  Road.  So  I  came  to 
know  a  good  deal  about  it.  The  road  had  been 
a  long  time  a-building.  Young  Pierson,  of  Ramapo, 
well-nigh  lost  his  fortune  in  the  job.  If  it  hadn't 
been  for  English  investors  coming  forward  and  buy 
ing  the  stock  at  a  time  when  Americans  had  got 
sick  of  the  thing,  it  would  have  fallen  flat  as  a  pancake 
and  there  wouldn't  have  been  any  Erie  Road  at 
all.  Pierson  had  worked  like  everything  to  get 
the  Legislature  to  give  a  subsidy.  In  this  he  was 
backed  by  the  southern  tier  of  counties  in  York 
State.  Those  counties  for  a  long  time  had  felt  sore 
that  the  Erie  Canal  had  not  been  built  through 
their  section  rather  than  through  the  Mohawk  section. 
And  they  put  up  such  a  howl  that  the  Legislature 
had  either  to  give  them  a  canal  of  their  own,  or  else 
build  a  railroad.  Pierson  —  he  was  the  son  of 
old  Judge  Pierson  of  Ramapo  —  pushed  the  thing 

129 


130         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

and  got  a  grant  of  money  from  the  Legislature. 
But  this  hadn't  carried  the  road  to  completion. 
It  hung  fire.  It  was  built  only  half-way  to  Lake 
Erie  —  was  like  a  bridge  thrown  half-way  across, 
about  as  much  use  as  no  bridge  at  all.  The  Legis 
lature  wouldn't  grant  any  more  money.  Also  Amer 
ican  capital  got  cold  feet.  The  thing  looked  bad. 
It  was  at  this  time  that  English  investors  came  to 
the  rescue.  They  put  up  their  good  money,  bought 
the  road's  paper,  helped  the  thing  out.  So  that 
by  and  by  a  pair  of  rails  was  laid  clean  through  to 
Dunkirk. 

Then  there  was  a  great  jubilee.  All  the  people 
in  that  part  of  the  state  joined  in  the  "Hurrah." 
They  had  been  jealous  of  the  Erie  Canal  section  of 
York  State.  Now  they  could  hold  their  heads  up 
with  any.  Because,  what  is  a  canal  with  its  poky 
old  boats,  compared  to  a  railroad  500  miles  long, 
with  trains  scooting  over  the  rails  like  a  streak  of 
lightning!  Thirty  miles  an  hour  now  wasn't  con 
sidered  remarkable;  soon  the  trains  could  keep  up 
that  speed  the  whole  distance.  To  celebrate  the 
completion  of  the  road  two  trains  of  cars  ran  over 
the  route.  There  were  many  invited  guests  —  the 
President,  Dan  Webster,  and  lots  of  the  other  big 
wigs.  It  was  in  the  spring  of  the  year.  When 
finally  they  got  to  Dunkirk  at  Lake  Erie,  they  had 
a  big  barbecue.  Under  a  tent  were  victuals  for 
well-nigh  a  thousand  people.  Whole  roast  pigs 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          131 

and  oxen  were  served  on  the  tables.     There  was  a 
great  sign  hung  up,  with  poetry  on  it: 

'Tis  done,  'tis  done,  the  mighty  chain, 
That  binds  Lake  Erie  to  the  main." 

The  road  first  along  ran  to  Piermont  on  the  Hud 
son.  They  hadn't  been  able  to  get  through  the 
Bergen  Hill,  which  lay  just  back  of  Jersey  City. 
So  had  to  go  up  to  Piermont  as  the  next  best  place 
of  reaching  the  Hudson.  Washington  Irving' s 
country  seat  was  on  the  river  on  the  opposite  bank. 
He  could  look  over  and  see  the  trains  come  down 
to  the  shore;  for  there  was  a  pier  a  mile  long  that 
ran  out  into  the  water  from  Piermont.  It  had  to 
be  that  long,  because  the  Hudson  is  shallow  at  that 
point.  (Right  where  Washington  Irving  had  his 
estate  was  where  the  three  patriot  soldiers  got 
Major  Andre  when  he  was  trying  to  escape  from 
West  Point,  during  the  treason  of  Benedict  Arnold.) 
That  place,  Piermont,  had  formerly  been  a  fishing 
village  called  Tappan  Slote.  The  place  had  sup 
ported  three  fishing  sloops.  But  now  three  steam 
boats  took  the  place  of  the  sloops.  Great  shops 
and  engine-houses  were  built,  and  a  switch-yard. 
Piermont  —  a  long  pier  running  right  into  the 
mountain  back  on  the  shore;  I  suppose  that's  where 
the  village  got  its  new  name  —  became  a  boom  town. 

This  plan  of  having  the  eastern  terminal  of  the 


132          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

road  at  Piermont  had  its  drawbacks.  It  was  twenty- 
four  miles  up  the  river  from  New  York  City.  Steam 
boats  could  take  care  of  the  travel  all  right  in  summer. 
But  in  winter  it  was  a  different  matter.  In  that  day 
there  wasn't  so  much  traffic  in  New  York  Bay  and 
on  the  North  River  as  there  is  now.  So  that  in  a 
cold  winter  the  floating  ice,  not  having  anything 
to  break  it  up,  used  to  jam,  and  freeze  solid  from 
shore  to  shore.  The  Erie  Railroad  boats  to  Piermont 
in  winter  had  to  have  a  channel  cut  for  them  through 
the  ice.  Sometimes  they  had  hard  work  keeping 
even  this  open.  The  channel  would  sometimes 
get  so  narrow  that  the  boat  could  just  skimp  through. 
Skaters  on  the  ice  would  come  alongside  and  jump 
onto  the  guard-rail  of  the  steamboat,  or  onto  the 
false  prow. 

However,  in  spite  of  this  difficulty  the  railroad 
did  well  almost  from  the  start.  For  one  thing, 
the  people  living  alongside  were  so  proud  of  the 
thing  that  they  pitched  in  and  helped  it  in  every 
way  they  could.  They  looked  upon  the  Erie  Road 
as  a  patriotic  achievement.  Because  people  as 
far  away  as  Europe  were  talking  about  this  wonder 
ful  engineering  feat  that  America  had  put  through. 
More  than  that,  the  road  ran  through  a  prosperous 
region.  From  Rockland  to  Chautauqua,  there  were 
rich  farm  lands  on  both  sides.  It  tapped  the 
Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  at  Port  Jervis.  Branch 
lines  quickly  spread  out  on  both  sides  and  served 


THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL    DREW          133 

as  feeders.  The  grazing  lands  of  Sullivan,  Dela 
ware  and  Broome  Counties  now  had  a  way  of  getting 
their  stuff  to  market.  The  road  paid  good  dividends. 
I  had  kept  my  eye  on  the  road  while  it  was  a-build- 
ing.  Because  I  knew  something  of  the  country  it 
went  through.  My  Western  cattle  trips  had  made 
me  acquainted  with  Ohio  and  the  great  region  west, 
which  this  road  was  now  to  lead  into.  And  my 
shorter  drover  trips  out  from  New  York  had  made 
me  more  or  less  at  home  in  those  counties  that  the 
Erie  Road  passed  through.  I  knew  that  that  south 
ern  York  State  country  was  a  rich  one.  It  had  been 
peopled  for  a  long  time  back.  During  the  Revolu 
tion  those  southern  counties  had  been  an  important 
section  of  the  state.  The  Tuxedo  Gap  through 
the  Ramapo  Mountains  was,  in  General  George 
Washington's  day,  the  only  road  between  New  York 
and  the  western  counties.  (I  knew  a  whole  lot 
about  that  Ramapo  section.  When  a  man  travels 
through  a  country  on  horseback,  with  a  drove  of 
three  or  four  hundred  critters  a-plodding  along 
behind  him,  and  pitching  camp  at  nightfall  where- 
ever  he  happens  to  be,  he  picks  up  a  sight  more 
information  about  a  locality  than  you  can  get  out 
of  books.)  That  is  why  General  George  Wash 
ington  fortified  the  Tuxedo  Gap  when  he  was  looking 
for  the  red-coats  to  advance  from  New  York  City 
and  New  Jersey.  He  knew  that  that  was  the  only 
pass  by  which  they  could  get  through,  and  he  wanted 


i34         THE  BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

to  keep  them  away  from  his  army  which  was  up  in 
the  Highlands.  Back  in  my  drover  days  these 
fortifications  were  still  standing.  They  ran  out  from 
the  south  side  of  the  mountain,  a  mile  and  a  half 
up  from  Major  Suffern's  mansion.  (That  mansion 
is  where  General  George  Washington  made  his 
headquarters  when  his  army  was  camped  there.) 
In  this  gap,  and  on  top  of  the  high  "torn"  -that's 
a  Dutch  word  for  steeple  —  before  the  railroad 
came  with  its  smoke  and  dust,  you  could  look  well- 
nigh  into  New  York  Harbour.  They  used  to  tell 
the  story  that  General  George  Washington  used  to 
climb  to  the  top  of  that  hill  and  watch  for  the 
British  through  a  spy-glass.  Just  a  little  beyond 
this,  a  mile  or  so  to  the  west,  is  where  our  droves 
of  cattle,  and  in  fact  all  the  traffic  which  went  through 
the  gap,  used  to  cross  the  Ramapo  River.  The  rail 
road  when  it  came  built  its  bridge  right  alongside 
the  old  turnpike  bridge.  Back  in  my  drover  days, 
Judge  Pierson  had  his  iron  works  there  for  rolling  and 
splitting  iron,  and  making  cut  nails.  The  river 
here  in  this  gap  furnished  fine  water  power.  And 
the  mountains  round  about  are  so  full  of  iron  ore 
that  in  a  lightning  storm  you  could  hardly  get  away 
from  the  fiery  bolts,  no  matter  which  way  you  ran. 
To  be  there  in  a  lightning  storm  would  make  a 
sinful  man  wish  he  had  listened  to  what  the  preacher 
said  and  had  made  himself  thunder-proof  against 
the  wrath  of  God. 


THE   BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW         135 

Why,  to  show  you  the  richness  of  that  country, 
long  before  the  railroad  was  even  thought  of,  out 
beyond  Pierson's  Iron  Works  Major  Jake  Sloat 
had  put  up  a  big  cotton  mill.  It  was  in  a  Dutch 
settlement.  Sloat  was  very  anxious  to  keep  a  good 
tone  in  his  settlement.  He  had  a  grocery  and 
general  store,  and  wouldn't  allow  a  smitch  of  rum 
or  intoxicating  drink  to  be  sold  anywhere  in  the 
place.  The  mill  was  in  a  beautiful  grove.  Dutch 
girls  worked  in  the  mill.  Their  homes  were  back 
in  the  woods  all  around,  here  one  and  there  one, 
very  cosy  little  cottages.  It  was  a  God-fearing 
people.  Judge  Pierson  also  kept  liquor  out  of  his 
village.  So  that  all  the  way  through  that  section 
it  was  a  poor  place  for  drovers  to  stop  off  in.  Because, 
since  they  weren't  allowed  to  sell  liquor,  no  one 
would  put  up  a  tavern.  They  figured  that  without 
a  tap-room,  a  tavern  wouldn't  pay  expenses.  So 
we  drovers  would  plan  to  go  through  that  section 
in  the  daytime,  and  reach  some  tavern  further  on. 
Because,  if  we  landed  there  at  night,  it  was  a  case 
of  sleeping  out  under  the  open  sky. 

Not  far  from  the  Tuxedo  Gap,  up  in  the  mountains, 
was  a  woodchopper's  settlement  called  Johnson- 
town.  They  made  a  living  by  burning  charcoal, 
which  they  carried  down  to  the  Ramapo  River  for 
use  in  the  iron  furnaces.  They  also  whittled  out 
wooden  spoons  and  chopping  bowls,  which  they 
sold.  They  were  a  good  people.  But  they  didn't 


136         THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

know  very  much  about  the  goings  on  in  the  great 
world  outside.  When  the  railroad  trains  began  to 
come  through  this  Tuxedo  Gap,  those  woodsmen 
heard  the  screech  of  the  engine  as  it  went  through 
the  woods  —  it  was  pretty  nigh  all  woods  in  those 
days,  so  that  a  squirrel  could  almost  go  through 
four  counties  from  tree-top  to  tree-top,  without 
touching  ground  —  they  thought  it  was  the  scream 
of  some  new  kind  of  wild  animal;  for  the  woods 
then  were  infested  with  panther  and  other  varmints. 
So  one  night  they  gathered  with  axes  and  pitchforks 
in  that  part  of  the  woods  where  the  screeching  had 
been  heard  night  after  night,  to  make  an  ambuscade 
for  the  beast.  When  the  engine  finally  came  rushing 
through  the  woods  and  the  darkness,  with  a  long 
tail  of  light  streaming  behind,  those  mountaineers 
rushed  away  scared.  This  new  kind  of  varmint  was 
too  much. 

The  Monroe  Iron  Furnace,  about  three  miles 
beyond  Sloat's  Burg,  was  where  Parrott  made  his 
guns,  which  became  famous  in  the  Civil  War.  There 
was  an  iron  mine  six  miles  up  from  there  in  the 
mountain,  whose  ore  was  said  to  be  the  sovereignest 
in  all  the  country  for  the  making  of  cannon.  (That's 
why  the  Parrott  gun  became  so  noted.)  It  was 
great  iron,  also,  for  making  nails;  and  some  distance 
from  there,  at  the  South  Fields,  back  in  my  drover 
days,  was  a  flourishing  nail  works.  Only  smart 
and  handy  chaps  were  employed  in  those  works, 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          137 

because  a  nailer  had  to  work  like  sixty.  A  nail  is 
so  small  that,  to  compete  with  the  maker  of  wooden 
pins,  a  nailer  had  to  get  a  certain  number  of  nails 
made  out  of  every  heating  of  the  rod.  Even  as  it 
was,  and  work  as  hard  as  they  could,  they  couldn't 
force  wooden  nails  from  the  market  altogether. 
Many  of  the  pin-makers  had  got  to  be  so  skilled  in 
making  wooden  nails  that  they  held  their  own  even 
when  iron  nails  came  in.  But  wooden  pins  were 
not  all  of  uniform  size;  they  used  to  cause  much 
profanity  on  the  part  of  house  and  barn  builders. 
So  it  was  a  good  thing,  I  have  always  thought, 
when  iron  nails  finally  took  the  place  of  wooden 
pins  altogether. 

This  particular  section  was  not  good  for  drovers. 
There  was  good  fishing  in  the  ponds.  Ramapo, 
they  used  to  say,  was  an  Indian  name,  meaning 
"place  of  round  ponds."  And  these  bits  of  water 
were  scattered  all  through  the  mountains  on  both 
sides  of  the  Tuxedo  Gap.  So  that,  if  a  fellow 
could  only  have  stopped  over  for  a  spell,  he  could 
have  had  good  sport  with  a  fish-pole.  But  the 
region  sent  only  a  few  cattle  to  market,  and  these 
were  for  the  most  part  stringy  things,  mere  bags 
of  bones.  The  woods  were  too  thick  and  the  moun 
tains  too  wild  for  grazing.  But  when  you  got  out 
a  little  further  west,  beyond  Tuxedo  Gap,  you  came 
out  by  Centreville.  (This  was  changed  to  "Turner's" 
when  the  railroad  came,  because  old  man  Turner 


138          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

kept  a  tavern  at  that  place  right  close  to  the  tracks, 
with  a  flourishing  grist  mill  back  of  it.  He  used  to 
feed  the  travellers;  Turner's  Restaurant  got  to  be 
famous  the  whole  length  of  the  Erie  Railroad  because 
of  its  fine  victuals.)  Here  you  came  into  a  region 
flowing  with  milk  and  butter.  Some  of  the  finest 
short-horn  beeves  that  ever  came  to  the  New  York 
market  were  picked  up  in  this  valley.  The  pas 
turing  was  of  good  quality  in  summer,  and  in  winter 
the  fodder  was  plentiful.  From  here  all  the  way 
along  the  route  of  the  Erie,  it  was  a  great  breeding 
section.  It  made  big  money  by  selling  critters  to 
us  drovers,  long  before  the  railroad  came. 


XVI 


YES,  I  knew  something  of  the  richness  of 
that  country  through  which  the  Erie 
railroad  was  being  built.  So,  when  it 
was  at  last  finished,  I  hankered  to  get  it  into  my 
hands.  I  felt  that  I  could  make  money  out  of 
it.  When  you  own  the  hen,  you  own  the  eggs 
also.  And  when  you  control  a  railroad  —  that's  the 
same  as  owning  it  —  you  own  what  the  road  makes. 
I  went  about  it  like  this.  There  was  by  this 
time  a  chain  of  railroads  through  the  Mohawk 
Valley  and  the  central  part  of  York  State.  They 
coupled  together,  a  little  later,  to  form  the  "New 
York  Central."  This  chain  of  railroads  out  of 
Albany  could  be  made,  in  connection  with  my 
steamboats  on  the  Hudson,  a  bad  competitor  of 
the  Erie  for  the  through  western  traffic.  With  my 
Hudson  River  boats  I  was  in  a  position  to  favour 
this  Central  Line  with  rates  on  the  through  traffic 
and  so  make  myself  an  enemy  of  the  Erie  whom  it 
would  stand  them  in  hand  to  make  terms  with.  To 
make  doubly  sure,  I  set  my  trap  at  the  other  end 
also.  Out  on  Lake  Erie  was  a  line  of  boats  con 
necting  with  the  Erie  Railroad  and  forming  its 

139 


i4o          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

route  to  the  far  West.  Softly  I  bought  a  controlling 
interest  in  this  steamboat  line.  This  gave  me 
power  over  the  Erie  in  that  direction.  I  took  still 
a  third  step.  Out  in  western  New  York  there  was 
a  line  of  railroad  connecting  both  the  Central  Line 
and  the  Erie.  It  was  known  as  the  "  Buffalo  and 
State  Line  Railroad."  Without  letting  anybody 
know  what  I  was  doing,  I  got  enough  stock  in  this 
dinkey  little  road  to  control  it. 

Now  my  trap  was  set.  I  let  it  be  known  that  I 
was  planning  to  give  the  railroad  which  ran  through 
central  New  York  a  better  through  rate,  both  on 
the  Hudson  River  steamboats  and  on  the  "  Buffalo 
and  State  Line"  connection  with  the  West,  than 
the  Erie  could  meet.  I  also  hinted  to  the  Erie 
Company  that  it  would  very  soon  have  to  give  me 
a  bigger  slice  of  the  through  rate,  for  the  use  of  my 
Lake  Erie  line  of  steamers. 

The  Erie  people  got  interested  in  me  then  almighty 
quick.  For  I  had  their  line  bottled  up,  corked  at 
both  ends  good  and  tight.  "What  do  you  mean," 
they  asked,  "by  giving  that  New  York  Central 
crowd  better  rates  than  you  do  us  ?" 

I  answered,  sort  of  cool-like,  that  I  hadn't  thought 
the  Erie  would  care  very  much.  They  had  never 
seemed  to  give  much  thought  to  Dan  Drew  one  way 
or  the  other.  I  said  I  was  kind  of  surprised  that 
they  even  knew  I  was  living. 

"What    do   you    mean    by    that?"     they    asked. 


THE   BOOK   OF    DANIEL    DREW          141 

"Is  it  that  you  want  to  be  a  director  of  the 
Erie?" 

I  hemmed  and  hawed,  chewed  my  tobacco  for  a 
spell,  and  then  said  I'd  think  their  offer  over.  Some 
time  before  the  Erie's  annual  meeting  I  let  it  be 
known  that,  inasmuch  as  they  had  asked  me  to  take 
a  position  as  director,  I  might  see  my  way  clear  to 
accept  if  I  was  elected.  I  put  it  kind  of  mild,  like 
that.  But  I  was  just  itching  to  get  in  on  the  inside. 
Like  a  dog  around  hot  porridge,  there  was  something 
good  there,  if  I  could  only  get  to  it.  I  could  hardly 
wait.  Finally  the  election  took  place,  and  they  sent 
me  word  that  I  had  been  elected  a  member  of  the 
Board  of  Directors.  I  was  at  last  on  the 
inside. 

But  even  this  wasn't  enough.  To  be  a  director 
is  something.  It  gives  you  Wall  Street  tips  ahead 
of  the  people  who  are  on  the  outside.  But  I  wanted 
something  more  (I  always  was  ambitious,  never  con 
tented,  but  always  pushing  on  to  something  better). 
So  I  now  took  steps  to  get  the  road  completely  under 
my  thumb.  In  order  to  do  this,  I  saw  I'd  have  to  get 
her  to  borrow  money  of  me.  That's  the  sure  way. 
When  a  man  is  in  your  debt,  he's  your  slave.  You 
own  him  body  and  breeches.  You  are  the  cat, 
he  is  the  mouse.  You  let  him  have  a  little  space 
to  run  about  in,  and  he  thinks  he's  going  to  get 
away.  But  you  are  only  playing  with  him.  You 
can  stick  out  your  paw  and  claw  him  across  the  back 


i42         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

any  time  you  wish.     So  I  set  about  to  make  them 
borrow  money,  and  to  borrow  it  of  me. 

This  was  not  so  easy  to  do  as  one  might  think. 
Because  the  Company  was  prosperous.  It  didn't 
need  any  more  money.  The  road  was  so  wonder 
ful  an  achievement  that  it  was  almost  a  mark  of 
patriotism  for  the  people  in  that  region  to  patronize 
it  and  help  it  along.  It  was  not  only  a  York 
State  thing,  it  was  an  American  institution  —  the 
first  great  trunk-line  railroad  the  world  had  ever 
seen.  So  money  flowed  in  from  all  sides.  Con 
ductors,  engineers,  brakemen,  track-walkers,  proud 
to  be  working  for  such  a  fine  and  great  enterprise, 
were  honest  and  faithful.  No  wonder  the  road 
paid  dividends.  This  was  during  the  panic  of  '57 
that  I  set  about  to  get  control  of  the  road.  Money 
everywhere  else  was  tight  —  so  much  suffering, 
in  fact,  that  the  New  York  Common  Council  put 
labourers  to  work  grading  the  new  Central  Park, 
in  order  to  relieve  the  distress.  And  yet,  with 
stocks  everywhere  else  slumping,  banks  failing, 
great  commercial  houses  toppling  on  every  side, 
that  very  year  the  young  and  thrifty  Erie  Railroad 
paid  no  less  than  eight  per  cent,  dividends.  If  a 
road  could  do  that  so  soon  after  it  was  built  and  while 
it  was  getting  onto  its  legs,  so  to  speak,  what  wouldn't 
it  do  when  it  had  settled  down  to  real  business  ? 
Yes,  it  did  look  like  a  hopeless  task,  to  make  a  road 
that  was  as  flourishing  as  this  borrow  money  of  me. 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          143 

But  I  was  like  a  steer  that  smells  the  clover;  he  will 
either  find  a  hole  through  the  line  fence,  or  make  one. 

This  Erie  enterprise  in  my  life,  let  me  say  right 
here,  got  a  lot  of  people  to  disliking  me.  "  Because," 
they  said,  "before  Dan  Drew  got  hold  of  it,  the 
Erie  was  one  of  the  best  and  most  thriving  proper 
ties  in  the  country  —  America's  pride  —  longest 
and  finest  railroad  in  the  world  —  the  bringer 
of  blessings  to  all  the  southern  tier  of  counties 
in  the  Empire  State.  Whereas,  when  he  got 
through  with  it,"  so  these  enemies  of  mine  said, 
"its  treasury  had  been  squeezed  dry,  the  road 
brought  to  bankruptcy,  its  rolling  stock  run  down, 
and  the  road-bed  become  a  death  trap  and  a  taker 
of  human  life.  And  the  evil  didn't  stop  with  him," 
so  they  went  on;  "for  when  this  Dan  Drew  finally 
let  go  his  clutch  on  the  finances  of  the  road,  he  had 
set  at  work  a  chain  of  influences  which  were  to  make 
the  road  a  by-word,  and  set  back  the  development  of  a 
third  part  of  York  State  for  the  space  of  fifty  years." 

Oh,  they  ripped  it  onto  me  good  and  hard.  I 
suppose  I  have  put  up  with  such  abuse  during  my 
life  as  have  few  other  men  that  ever  lived.  But, 
being  of  a  peaceable  disposition,  I  have  forgiven 
these  enemies  of  mine  all  the  hard  things  they  said. 
I  always  turn  the  other  cheek,  as  it  were.  A  quiet 
cow  can  get  along  with  short  horns;  and  if,  when 
enemies  revile  you  and  say  all  manner  of  evil  against 
you,  you  don't  answer  back,  but  just  go  on  your 


i44         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

own  peaceable  way,  it  sort  of  takes  all  the  spunk  out 
of  them;  by  and  by  they  get  over  being  mad, 
and  stop  their  mud-throwing.  Anyhow,  I  never  did 
care  pea-shucks  what  people  were  saying  about  me. 
So  many  have  taken  a  kick  at  me  that  if  I  were 
tender  I  suppose  I'd  be  so  sore  by  this  time  that  I 
couldn't  sit  down;  but  my  saddle  leather,  so  to 
speak,  has  become  tough,  so  that  I  don't  mind  their 
kicks  any  more. 

The  truth  is,  I  was  hard  pushed  for  funds  when 
I  started  in  on  this  Erie  business.  My  fortune  had 
stopped  growing.  And  no  matter  how  much  a  man 
has,  when  he  comes  to  a  point  where  he  stops  get 
ting  richer,  he  is  scared.  The  panic  of  '57  had  cut 
off  a  number  of  my  dividends.  I  was  doing  nothing 
more  than  holding  my  own.  I  wasn't  making  any 
progress.  Each  night  didn't  see  me  any  further 
along  towards  becoming  a  rich  man  than  the  morn 
ing.  I  wasn't  getting  ahead.  Every  man  of  spirit 
wants  to  be  getting  ahead. 

Besides,  with  this  panic  year  of  which  I'm  now 
writing,  a  new  state  of  affairs  came  about  in  financial 
circles.  The  panic  was  known  as  the  "Western 
Blizzard."  It  put  old  fogyism  out  of  date  forever- 
more.  The  men  who  conducted  business  in  the 
old-fashioned,  slow-poke  method  —  the  think-of- 
the-other-fellow  method  —  were  swept  away  by 
this  panic,  or  at  least  were  so  crippled  up  that  they 
didn't  figure  much  in  the  world  of  affairs  afterwards. 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          145 

A  new  generation  of  men  came  in  —  a  more  pushful 
set.  I  was  one  of  them.  We  were  men  now  who 
went  ahead.  We  did  things.  We  didn't  split 
hairs  about  trifles.  Anyhow,  men  of  thin  skin,  with 
a  conscience  all  the  time  full  of  prickles,  are  out  of 
place  in  business  dickerings.  A  prickly  conscience 
would  be  like  a  white  silk  apron  for  a  blacksmith. 
Sometimes  you've  got  to  get  your  hands  dirty,  but 
that  doesn't  mean  that  the  money  you  make  is 
also  dirty.  Black  hens  can  lay  white  eggs.  Take 
that  blacksmith.  During  the  day  he  gets  all  grimed 
up.  Then  at  night  he  washes,  and  now  is  as  clean 
as  anything.  And  his  money  is  clean,  too.  What 
better  kind  of  man  is  there  than  a  blacksmith  ?  It 
isn't  how  you  get  your  money  but  what  you  do  with 
it,  that  counts. 

Well,  as  I  started  to  say,  I  wanted  to  get  the  Erie 
Railroad  in  my  debt.  I  went  about  it  in  this  fashion: 
The  road,  as  I  guess  I've  wrote,  went  to  Piermont, 
twenty-four  miles  up  the  Hudson.  They  would  like 
to  have  come  straight  down  to  Jersey  City.  It  would 
have  saved  that  twenty-four  mile  trip  by  water, 
which  was  so  bothersome  in  winter.  But  there, 
square  across  the  path,  was  Bergen  Hill.  The 
trouble  with  this  hill  was,  it  wasn't  a  gradual  rise 
that  a  railroad  grade  could  work  up  to  and  over  by 
slow  degrees.  The  Hackensack  meadows  came 
smack  up  to  it  on  one  side,  and  the  Hudson  shore 
smack  up  on  the  other,  with  this  hill  between, 


146         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL    DREW 

stiff  as  a  line  fence.  But  the  Erie  was  so  prosper 
ous,  holding  its  own  even  in  this  panic  year  of  '57, 
that  the  directors  now  decided  to  go  ahead  and  try  the 
well-nigh  impossible  task  of  getting  into  Jersey  City. 

Some  time  before  this,  passengers  to  New  York 
had  got  into  the  habit  of  leaving  the  Erie  at  Suffern 
Station,  and  getting  on  to  another  road  which  brought 
them  into  New  York  by  the  way  of  Paterson,  New 
Jersey.  A  short-cut  road  over  this  route  had  been 
built  by  private  capital.  Or  rather,  this  short  cut 
was  a  chain  made  up  of  three  roads;  the  " Union 
Railroad,"  the  "Ramapo  &  Paterson"  and  the 
"Paterson  &  Jersey  City."  All  of  them  were 
short.  The  "Union"  in  fact  was  only  half  a  mile 
long,  but  was  needed  in  making  the  final  connection 
with  the  Erie.  These  were  all  narrow-gauge  roads 
—  that  is,  narrow-gauge  for  that  time.  They  would 
be  called  standard-gauge  to-day,  for  they  were  built 
on  the  English  standard,  five  feet  eight  and  a  half 
inches  wide,  which  has  since  been  adopted  by  all 
the  railroads  of  America.  But  the  Erie  was  a  six- 
foot  road.  Right  here  was  one  difficulty.  The 
Erie  rolling  stock  couldn't  run  on  this  narrow  gauge, 
nor  could  the  narrow-gauge  cars  and  engines  run  on 
the  broad  track  of  the  Erie. 

This  short  cut  through  Paterson,  when  it  got 
to  within  two  miles  of  the  Hudson  River,  followed 
the  track  of  'The  New  Jersey  Railroad  & 
Transportation  Co.,"  through  a  hole  in  Bergen  Hill 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW          147 

into  Jersey  City.  That  was  then  the  only  way 
through  that  hill.  It  had  been  cut  at  the  lower 
end,  where  the  mountain  was  nowTheres  near  so 
broad  and  so  hard  to  tunnel  as  it  was  further  up. 
But  this  cut  through  the  hill  was  already  taken. 
It  was  the  only  thoroughfare  from  New  York  to 
Philadelphia,  Washington  and  the  South.  So  it 
had  all  it  could  do  to  handle  its  own  traffic.  And 
for  the  Erie  Road,  with  its  great  trunk-line  traffic, 
to  try  to  use  that  same  passage-way  would  have 
blocked  it  tight.  So  an  independent  hole  through 
the  mountain  was  needed,  and  further  up,  too,  where 
the  tunnelling  was  hard. 

But  the  directors  took  the  bit  in  their  teeth,  so  to 
speak.  They  voted  to  buy  this  Paterson  short  cut 
consisting  of  the  three  roads  running  out  to  Suffern, 
and,  leaving  the  narrow  gauge  as  it  was,  to  lay  a 
third  rail  so  as  to  accommodate  the  Erie's  six-foot 
rolling  stock.  They  also  voted  to  dig  a  tunnel 
under  Bergen  Hill,  and  to  build  a  long  dock  and 
terminal  in  Jersey  City. 

I  was  happy.  Here  was  the  chance  I'd  been 
waiting  for.  I  set  about  softly  to  increase  the 
difficulties  the  road  was  meeting  in  this  job,  so  as 
to  get  her  to  a  point  where  she  would  have  to  cut 
her  dividends,  find  her  balance  by  and  by  on  the 
other  side  of  the  account  sheet,  and  finally  have  to 
raise  a  loan.  I  didn't  let  the  other  directors  know 
what  I  was  doing.  In  order  to  keep  my  place  on 


148         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

the  Erie  Board  I  made  believe  I  was  working  for 
her  interests.  So,  all  unbeknownst  to  them,  I  began 
to  put  obstacles  in  the  way  of  these  improvements 
which  the  road  was  undertaking.  Not  big  enough 
obstacles,  of  course,  to  stop  the  improvements  alto- 
together.  All  I  wanted  was  to  get  the  road  into  hot 
water,  so  it  would  become  a  borrower. 

I  had  two  or  three  ways  of  thus  stirring  up  trouble. 
One  was  by  means  of  the  Rockland  County  repre 
sentatives  in  the  Legislature  at  Albany.  Piermont 
and  the  other  sections  of  Rockland  County  hated 
to  see  the  terminal  of  the  road  moved  to  Jersey  City, 
like  a  cat  hates  mustard.  Because  to  be  a  great 
railroad  terminal  was  booming  Piermont  and  the 
surrounding  towns.  Her  population  was  growing. 
She  promised  to  become  a  city  in  no  time.  They 
didn't  take  at  all  to  the  idea  of  losing  this,  and  of 
having  the  terminal  moved  to  a  city  in  another  state. 
York  State  had  given  some  grants  of  money  to  see 
the  railroad  built.  So  now  the  Rockland  County 
people  got  up  all  kinds  of  objections  in  the  Legisla 
ture  against  changing  the  charter  of  the  road  so  as 
to  permit  it  to  go  down  into  Jersey  City.  These 
difficulties  at  Albany  gave  me  a  chance  to  depress 
the  securities  of  the  road,  by  hinting  around  through 
Wall  Street  that  the  road  was  losing  its  favour  with 
the  powers  at  Albany,  and  that  it  apparently  was  no 
longer  to  be  York  State's  pet  institution,  but  an 
outlaw  from  now  on.  The  bill  was  at  last  put 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          149 

through.     But   not   until   I    had   made   it  help   my 
end. 

In  the  tunnel  which  the  road  was  trying  to  dig, 
I  had  a  still  better  handle  against  them.  Thousands 
of  travellers  go  through  that  hole  to-day,  and  most 
like  as  not  hardly  give  a  minute's  thought  to  the 
trouble  that  was  had  in  digging  it.  But  there  was 
trouble.  The  boring  of  tunnels  in  those  days  wasn't 
the  easy  thing  it  is  getting  to  be  to-day.  Vanderbilt 
had  done  it,  under  Murray  Hill  in  New  York  City. 
But  that  was  a  short  and  easy  thing  to  do.  Murray 
Hill  wasn't  very  high  —  he  could  put  a  lot  of  air 
shafts  down  through  from  the  top.  The  road  to 
Philadelphia  had  also  done  it;  but,  as  I  said,  this 
was  at  the  lower  end  of  Bergen  Hill,  where  the  thing 
was  easy.  Up  where  the  Erie  was  trying  to  do  it, 
the  thing  was  all-fired  difficult.  Bergen  Hill  is 
made  of  trap  rock,  about  as  hard  a  thing  as  is  known 
-  so  hard,  in  fact,  that  they  use  the  rock  for  paving 
stones.  Over  in  Hoboken  the  people  in  winter  cut 
paving  stones  out  of  the  ledge  in  their  back  yards. 
Besides,  engineers  didn't  have  anything  but  gun 
powder;  and  the  only  way  they  could  drill  the 
blasting-holes  was  by  one  man  holding  and  turning 
the  drill,  while  two  others  hammered  it  in.  More 
than  that,  in  the  state  of  engineering  science  of  that 
day,  there  was  no  guarantee  that  with  so  long  a 
tunnel  they  could  keep  it  straight  and  true,  so  as  to 
know  where  they  were  coming  out.  Best  of  all  — 


1 50         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

for  my  purpose  —  the  popular  mind  was  in  a  scary 
condition  in  reference  to  so  big  and  risky  a  job. 
People  were  open  to  all  kinds  of  rumours. 

Accordingly,  while  the  work  was  going  on,  I 
softly  started  reports  through  Wall  Street  to  the 
effect  that  the  tunnel  wasn't  getting  along  as  pros 
perous  as  had  been  hoped  for  —  difficulties  were 
being  met  with  —  it  was  all  right  to  try  to  dig  narrow 
tunnels  through  small  hills;  but  to  dig  a  tunnel 
for  a  six-foot  railroad,  through  a  mountain  as  big 
and  hard  as  Bergen  Hill,  was  being  found  a  dif 
ferent  matter.  And  there  were  dangers,  too,  I 
hinted,  which  hadn't  been  calculated  on.  The 
workmen  were  getting  scared  to  be  so  far  in  the 
bowels  of  a  mountain,  where  they  didn't  know  what 
might  turn  up  any  minute  in  the  shape  of  unknown 
caverns  of  water,  cave-ins,  foul  gases  and  such  like. 

Investors  are  skittish  folk.  It's  the  business  of 
Wall  Street  to  catch  the  slightest  hints  and  act  upon 
them;  which  makes  it  the  easiest  place  in  the  world 
to  get  rumours  going.  Accordingly,  when  these 
hints  were  dropped  by  one  like  myself,  who  was 
known  to  be  on  the  inside  of  the  Company's  coun 
cils,  investors  took  them  at  once  for  valuable  points 
as  to  the  state  of  Erie's  affairs.  A  rumour,  par 
ticularly  if  it  comes  from  some  source  on  the  inside, 
only  needs  to  be  started.  It  spreads  then  of  itself 
and  keeps  getting  bigger.  Capital  got  scared.  As 
soon  as  it  was  learned  that  the  Erie  Railroad  in  this 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW          151 

Bergen  Hill  tunnel  had  bitten  off  more  than  it  could 
chew,  in  fact  seemed  to  be  getting  sick  of  the  job 
and  might  give  up  in  disgust,  investors  became 
suddenly  uncertain  concerning  the  stock.  Erie 
slumped  from  sixty-three  down  to  thirty-three.  So 
that  the  road  now  couldn't  raise  money  like  she 
had  used  to. 

This  set-back  came  at  the  time  when  she  needed 
the  money  most,  because  just  then  her  pay-roll  was 
enormous.  There  were  new  supplies  to  pay  for; 
workmen  in  the  tunnel  to  pay  off  every  month; 
the  costly  right  of  way  through  Jersey  City;  freight- 
yards  in  that  city;  a  big  new  station  to  build;  and 
a  long  dock  out  into  the  water;  and  the  job  of  getting 
a  charter  through  the  Legislature  at  Trenton  and 
through  the  Jersey  City  Council.  The  Company  just 
had  to  have  money.  There  hardly  had  been  a 
time  when  she  needed  capital  more  than  she  did 
just  now.  But  capital  now  wasn't  friendly.  The 
directors  met  in  a  sad-faced  session  and  asked  what 
could  be  done. 

When  they  were  most  in  the  dumps,  I  stepped 
forward.  I  announced  that  I  would  be  the  road's 
helper.  Since  the  other  men  of  money  were  getting 
cold  feet  and  seemed  to  be  losing  faith  in  the  enter 
prise,  I  would  let  them  have  a  loan  of  my  money, 
all  that  I  could  raise.  If  they  wanted  a  million  and 
a  half,  I'd  see,  in  some  way  or  other,  that  they  got 
it. 


152         THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

They  took  me  up.  I  paid  over  the  money,  and 
took  as  security  a  chattel  mortgage  on  the  rolling 
stock.  I  had  the  sow  by  the  ear  at  last.  From 
now  on,  for  almost  ten  years,  I  had  the  Erie  Rail 
road  in  my  breeches  pocket,  so  to  speak.  It  is 
always  an  advantage  in  Wall  Street  operations  to 
be  on  the  inside  of  a  railroad  or  a  big  industrial 
concern.  You  know,  then,  the  monthly  earnings 
before  they  are  given  out  to  the  public.  You  get 
earliest  notice  of  any  favourable  or  unfavourable 
happening.  You  have  access  to  the  transfer  books 
and  know  where  all  the  circulating  stock  is.  Any 
dangers  that  have  arisen  to  the  road's  property, 
or  any  new  connection  favourable  to  the  road's 
earning  capacity,  is  known  to  you  long  before  the 
outside  investors  have  got  the  tip.  So  that  you  can 
go  onto  the  Stock  Exchange  and  speckilate  in  those 
shares  with  your  eyes  open,  whilst  the  rest  of  the 
speckilators  are  going  it  blind.  An  insider's  posi 
tion  is  as  good  as  money  in  the  chest. 

Besides,  I  had  now  another  advantage  as  well. 
Not  only  could  I  predict  well-nigh  every  turn  in 
Erie  shares.  I  could  do  even  better.  I  could  make 
it  turn  in  either  direction  I  chose.  I  had  the  horse 
by  the  halter,  so  to  speak,  and  could  lead  him  where 
I  wanted.  If  my  operations  on  the  Stock  Exchange 
made  it  needful  for  the  stock  to  go  up,  I  could  give 
out  that  the  road  was  prosperous  —  and  her 
stock  would  go  up.  Or  if  I  was  in  a  Bearish  temper 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          153 

and  wanted  her  shares  to  slump,  I  could  make  the 
road  unprosperous  for  a  time,  and  then  stocks  would 
go  down  to  the  point  where  I  wanted  them.  I 
worked  it  something  like  this :  Erie  shares  would 
be  selling,  say  at  ninety.  I  would  give  orders  to 
my  broker  to  sell  Erie  heavily  short.  By  selling  short 
a  Wall  Street  operator  puts  out  contracts  to  deliver 
the  stock,  say  sixty  days  from  that  date,  at  present 
prices.  If  within  those  sixty  days  the  price  goes 
down,  he  can  buy  at  the  lower  price  and  collect  at 
the  higher  price  named  in  the  contract.  Well,  after 
I  had  got  my  short  contracts  placed,  the  other 
fellows,  of  course,  taking  my  offers,  because  they 
figured  that  the  shares  were  likely  to  go  up  rather 
than  down,  I  would  give  out  a  statement  to  the 
effect  that  I,  as  owner  of  the  chattel  mortgages  on 
on  the  road,  was  about  to  foreclose.  Or  I  would 
have  one  of  my  under-fellows  get  out  an  injunction 
forbidding  the  road  to  pay  any  more  dividends; 
or  I  would  start  a  rumour  that  the  road  was  going 
to  rack  and  ruin.  Immediately  there  would  be  a 
panic  in  Erie  quotations.  Her  shares  would  slump; 
and  before  the  sixty  days  were  up,  that  former  price 
of  ninety  would  have  shrunk  to,  say,  sixty-five.  So 
that  now  I  would  buy  my  shares  at  sixty-five,  sell 
them  for  that  contract  figure,  ninety,  and  thus  pocket 
$25  clean  profit  on  every  share  dealt  in.  If  this 
particular  deal  had  amounted  to  fifteen  or  twenty 
thousand  shares,  and  I  cleaned  up  $25  on  every 


154          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

share,  any  one  can  see  what  a  fine  little  sum  it  would 
amount  to. 

Thereupon  I  would  turn  round  and  work  it  the 
other  way.  I  was  now  short  of  the  stock  —  that  is, 
was  sold  out.  I  would  therefore  buy  large  blocks 
of  it  at  the  low  figure  of  $65  a  share.  Now  it 
stands  me  in  hand  to  have  the  stock  go  up  in  value. 
So  I  give  out  a  statement  to  the  effect  that  my  little 
difficulty  with  the  road,  which  had  been  noised 
abroad  some  weeks  before,  has  been  settled;  I 
have  decided  not  to  foreclose  my  chattel  mortgage 
after  all  —  the  road  has  found  a  way  to  fix 
up  the  matter  with  me,  is  very  prosperous,  in  fact 
is  likely  to  declare  a  big  dividend  shortly.  Imme 
diately,  with  these  refreshing  rumours  spreading 
abroad,  Erie  stock  begins  to  go  up.  By  and  by 
she  touches  again  the  top-notch  figure,  say,  ninety. 
Now  I  sell,  and  in  this  way  clean  up  $25  more  on 
every  share  of  stock  I  had  dealt  in. 

This  is  the  advantage  of  operating  from  the 
inside.  You  win  both  going  and  coming.  When 
stock  is  going  down  you  are  a  Bear,  and  make  money 
by  its  fall.  When  the  stock  is  going  up,  you  are  a 
Bull,  and  make  money  by  the  rise.  In  fact,  I  worked 
this  so  prosperous,  that  after  a  while  they  made  it 
into  a  kind  of  a  proverb.  It  got  to  be  a  saying 
around  the  street:  "Daniel  says  'up'  -Erie 
goes  up.  Daniel  says  *  down'  -Erie  goes  down. 
Daniel  says  'wiggle-waggle'  -  -  it  bobs  both  ways!" 


XVII 

I  HAD  by  this  time  got  too  rich  to  live  down 
in  Bleecker  Street.  I  was  becoming  one  of 
the  big  bugs  in  the  financial  world.  There 
weren't  so  many  back  in  those  early  days --Jake 
Little,  Vanderbilt  and  a  few  others.  If  these 
fellows  could  have  big,  fine  houses  to  live  in,  I  thought 
I  ought  to  have  one  too. 

So  I  went  way  up  to  Seventeenth  Street.  I  decided 
if  I  was  going  to  move  at  all  I  might  as  well  make 
a  big  move  while  I  was  about  it.  I  bought  a  lot 
there  on  the  corner,  facing  Union  Square.  That 
square  had  been  the  parade  ground  for  Company 
Drill  and  General  Training,  back  in  my  "Bull's 
Head"  days.  Now  it  had  been  turned  into  a  public 
park.  Some  fine  houses  were  being  built  around 
it.  So  I  wanted  to  live  there,  too,  and  be  in  the 
company  of  the  money  kings. 

I  built  a  big  house,  a  four-story  mansion  of  brown 
stone,  on  the  lower  corner  of  the  street.  For  I  had 
money  now.  A  man  with  a  big  jar  of  butter  can 
spread  his  bread  thick.  My  site  extended  back 
some  distance  along  Seventeenth  Street,  and  I  put 
up  a  barn,  with  a  cow-shed  and  horse-stable  joined 

155 


156          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

to  the  house.  I  have  always  had  a  hankering  for 
cattle.  Though  I  was  now  a  city  dweller,  I  was 
bent  on  keeping  at  least  a  milch  cow.  The  smell 
of  cattle  now  and  then,  particularly  when  he  is 
cooped  up  in  a  city,  sort  of  does  a  fellow  good.  It 
makes  him  feel  young  again.  Sometimes  when  I 
have  been  worried  well-nigh  to  death  in  some  tight 
place  in  my  speckilations,  I  have  got  up  of  a  morning 
and  walked  out  through  the  back  yard  and  into 
the  cow-stable  —  for  I  had  built  my  home  in 
such  a  way  that  by  walking  out  through  the  con 
servatory  on  the  first  floor  I  went  down  into  a  little 
back  yard,  just  beyond  which  was  the  stable  and  cow 
shed.  Once  there,  the  smell  of  the  cow  and  horses 
would  take  me  back  to  old  days,  and  make  me 
forget  my  worries.  I  could  go  back  to  the  breakfast 
table  a  new  man,  ready  to  face  anything.  Family 
prayer  after  breakfast  would  also  help  to  put  spirit 
in  me.  We  didn't  have  much  form  or  ceremony  in 
these  daily  devotions.  Getting  my  family  around 
me,  I  would  read  a  portion  from  the  Scriptures. 
Perhaps  then  we  would  sing  a  verse  or  two  of  a 
hymn,  particularly  if  we  had  a  preacher  staying 
with  us  —  I  gave  preachers  the  run  of  the  house 
-  then  we  would  kneel  and  I  would  offer  prayer. 
Then  from  the  family  altar  I  would  step  out 
through  the  back  yard,  and  if  my  hired  man 
wasn't  around,  would  harness  the  horse  my 
self--!  had  a  black  horse  for  many  years — to 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          157 

take  me  down  to  the  Street.  I  had  a  doctor's 
gig  to  ride  in,  and  would  drive  down  the  Bowery 
Road  to  Wall  Street.  There  I  would  send  a  boy 
with  the  rig  to  a  livery  stable  not  far  away;  and 
he  would  also  bring  the  rig  back  for  me  at  the 
close  of  business  that  day.  To  have  the  reins  in 
my  hands  and  to  feel  the  tug  of  the  bit,  would  carry 
me  back  to  old  days  when  I  was  driving  along  the 
"Mud  Road"  or  the  "Horse  Pound  Road"  up  at 
Carmel  looking  for  calves  and  heifers. 

I  was  glad  that  I  had  made  the  move  up  into  the 
big  house  on  Union  Square.  Because  it  gave  me 
standing  among  the  boys  on  the  Street.  This  was 
the  time  when  Wall  Street  was  beginning  to  get 
important.  The  early  cow  gets  the  dew,  and  those 
who  were  on  the  Stock  Exchange  back  in  those  days 
made  money.  For  the  Civil  War  was  coming  on. 
We  didn't  know  it  then.  Still,  we  knew  that  some 
thing  big  was  on  the  anvil.  There  was  a  stir  in 
the  air.  Nobody  knew  what  was  going  to  happen 
next.  And  we  made  big  bets,  so  to  speak,  as  to 
what  would  come  off  on  the  morrow.  Even  the 
most  unlikely  speckilation  would  sometimes  win, 
affairs  were  that  unsettled.  The  very  existence  of 
the  nation  was  uncertain.  Nobody  knew  just  where 
we  stood.  At  such  seasons,  speckilators  have  good 
times.  When  excitement  is  high  and  one  thing  as 
likely  to  happen  as  another,  it  gets  people  worked 
up  to  venture  big  sums. 


158         THE   BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

When  the  Civil  War  finally  broke  out,  I  wasn't 
sure  for  a  spell  whether  I  wanted  to  see  York  State 
go  into  it  or  not.  Because,  if  the  nation  went  to 
smash,  and  our  state  was  mixed  up  in  it,  we  would 
be  in  the  smash-up,  too.  Whilst,  if  we  stayed  out 
of  the  muss,  and  the  smash-up  came,  we  could  save 
our  bacon.  Because  our  state,  and  particularly 
New  York  City,  was  in  position  to  get  along  even 
if  there  wasn't  any  nation.  In  fact,  there  might  be 
advantages  in  being  independent  of  the  rest  of  the 
country  —  a  sovereignty  all  by  ourselves.  Fernando 
Wood,  who  was  Mayor  of  New  York  when  the  War 
broke  out,  suggested  this  in  a  message  to  the  Com 
mon  Council.  He  wanted  them  to  consider  whether 
it  might  not  be  to  our  advantage  to  become  a  free 
and  independent  city.  Said  he: 

"Why  should  not  New  York  City,  instead  of 
supporting,  by  her  contributions  in  revenues,  two- 
thirds  of  the  expenses  of  the  United  States,  become 
also  equally  independent  ?  As  a  free  city  with  but  a 
nominal  duty  on  imports,  her  local  government 
would  be  supported  without  taxes  upon  her  people. 
Thus  we  could  live  free  from  taxes,  and  have  cheap 
goods  nearly  duty-free." 

It  was  a  puzzle,  and  I  for  one  couldn't  just  make 
up  my  mind.  We  in  New  York  were  a  commercial 
set.  We  didn't  have  New  England's  hot-headedness 
to  get  excited  over  Negro  cotton-pickers  down  South. 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          159 

And  if  the  general  smash-up  was  to  come,  it  was 
true  that  New  York  as  a  free  and  sovereign  city, 
having  such  a  fine  harbour  location,  could  get  goods 
from  Europe  free  of  duty  and  keep  all  of  that  tariff 
money  to  herself.  But  then,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
was  to  the  advantage  of  us  money  kings  to  have  a 
big  country  to  operate  in;  because  railroads  cross 
the  country  without  regard  to  state  boundaries. 
We  wanted  a  big  landscape  so  we  could  do  a  big 
business.  It  was  a  hard  thing  to  decide,  whether 
to  go  in  for  the  War  and  stand  by  the  Union,  or  stay 
out  and  make  ourselves  free  and  independent. 
But  Abe  Lincoln  came  to  New  York  and  made 
a  speech  in  Cooper  Union.  That  turned  the  people 
towards  the  preservation  of  the  Union.  It  wasn't 
much  of  a  stump  speech.  Lincoln's  voice,  I  always 
thought,  was  too  husky  to  make  him  a  popular 
talker.  But  people  who  came  away  from  Cooper 
Union  that  night  got  the  notion  that  this  question 
of  standing  by  the  Union  was  really  of  considerable 
importance.  The  speech  made  a  lot  of  talk  over 
the  city,  and  even  roused  some  of  the  boys  on  the 
Street,  who  commonly  were  calm-headed  like  myself. 
Then  when,  on  top  of  that  speech,  the  shots  were  fired 
on  Fort  Sumter,  it  made  such  an  almighty  stir  among 
the  people  generally  that  we  Wall  Street  men  had  to 
get  in  step.  A  fellow  would  have  been  very  unpopu 
lar  then,  if  he  had  stood  out  against  the  War.  It  was 
now  a  case  of  fight  it  out,  no  matter  what  the  cost. 


160          THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL  DREW 

What  won't  make  butter  must  go  into  cheese.  If 
the  War  must  come,  I  decided  to  make  it  help  my 
fortunes.  And  I  must  say  that  I  soon  began  to 
wonder  how  I  had  been  of  two  minds  as  to  the  advan 
tage  or  disadvantage  of  a  war.  For  I  saw  very 
quickly  that  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  was  going  to 
be  a  money-maker  for  me.  Along  with  ordinary 
happenings,  we  fellows  in  Wall  Street  now  had  in 
addition  the  fortunes  of  war  to  speckilate  about 
and  that  always  makes  great  doings  on  a  stock 
exchange.  It's  good  fishing  in  troubled  waters. 
As  I  look  back  now,  I  see  that  I  never  made  more 
money,  or  had  four  years  that  were  all  in  all  more 
genuinely  prosperous,  than  those  four  years  of  the 
War.  Commonly,  the  things  that  belong  to  guns 
and  battles  and  soldiers  don't  appeal  to  me.  I 
made  some  money  once — I  guess  I've  men 
tioned  it  in  these  papers,  somewheres  —  by 
wearing  a  knapsack  for  the  Government,  in  the 
War  of  1812.  But  I  saw  even  as  a  boy  that  this 
thing  they  call  patriotism  is  a  mighty  slow  way  in 
which  to  roll  up  a  fortune.  I  have  noticed  since, 
that  the  fellows  who  are  all  the  time  hurrahing  for 
their  country  don't  get  fat  bank  accounts.  For 
instance,  there  was  all  of  that  talk  about  the 
Missouri  Compromise.  When  I  was  getting 
started  in  Wall  Street  there  were  people  who 
talked  of  nothing  else  but  Missouri  —  discussing 
sometimes  way  into  the  night.  And  they  are  for 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          161 

the  most  part  poor  men  to-day.  Whilst  all  of  that 
time  I  was  giving  myself  to  business,  and  piling 
up  money. 

But  now  I  saw  that  I  could  turn  this  very 
thing  of  war  into  a  helpful  friend.  Because,  with 
McClelland  Peninsular  Campaign,  a  tall  business 
began  in  Wall  Street.  I  found  myself  getting  really 
interested  in  the  movements  of  armies  and  such 
like  things.  For  now  it  stood  me  in  hand  to  keep 
track  of  the  doings  at  the  front.  In  fact,  we  finan 
cial  men  organized  a  way  for  getting  early  news  from 
the  seat  of  war.  A  silver  key  will  open  any  kind 
of  a  lock.  We  had  on  our  pay-roll  sutlers,  reporters, 
private  soldiers  and  officers  even  up  to  generals. 
Also,  there  were  politicians  in  Washington,  even  a 
Congressman  or  two,  whom  we  used  to  pay.  We 
found  that  it  was  a  good  plan  also  to  have  an  under 
standing  with  telegraph  operators,  because  when 
they  were  sending  important  messages  to  the  Gov 
ernment  from  the  seat  of  war,  they  could  favour  us 
by  sending  the  news  also  to  us  —  sometimes  before 
they  sent  it  to  Washington.  Big  officials  who 
wouldn't  accept  money  could  usually  be  reached 
by  giving  them  some  shares  in  the  stock  we  were 
manipulating.  (We  didn't  dare  make  offers  of 
this  kind  to  Abe  himself.  Lincoln  was  an  unprac 
tical  man,  so  far  as  making  money  went.  All  he 
thought  about  was  to  save  the  Union.  He  used  to 
get  very  peevish  at  some  of  us  money  kings.)  During 


162         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL    DREW 

these  days  of  the  War  we  who  were  on  the  inside 
could  call  the  turn  of  a  stock  long  before  the 
general  public. 

This  made  very  profitable  business.  In  fact, 
I  got  to  taking  a  great  interest  in  the  Boys  in  Blue. 
I  came  to  look  upon  them  as  heroes.  Their  pay, 
to  be  sure,  would  have  to  come  out  of  the  taxes. 
We  rich  men  would  have  to  foot  most  of  the  bill. 
Still,  I  didn't  let  that  thought  bother  me.  I  felt 
that  the  Boys  in  Blue,  sometimes  tramping  all  night 
through  fever  swamps  and  across  mountains,  or 
lying  in  the  camp  hospitals  sick  and  wounded  and 
dying,  earned  all  the  monthly  pay  they  got.  Because 
they  were  beating  the  waters,  so  to  speak,  and  we 
in  Wall  Street  were  getting  the  fish.  There  was 
the  Antietam  Campaign,  for  instance.  It  was  worth 
a  good  deal  to  a  Wall  Street  speculator,  that  one 
campaign.  Because,  whilst  the  people  all  through 
the  North  were  still  wondering  what  was  the  fate 
of  that  expedition,  we,  by  our  underground  telegraph 
lines,  so  to  speak,  knew  the  outcome  of  the  cam 
paign,  and  turned  it  to  such  good  use  in  the  stock 
market  that  we  made  almost  enough  from  that  one 
deal  to  pay  the  wages  of  every  Boy  in  Blue  in  that 
army.  When  Richmond  was  finally  taken,  I  for 
one  was  sorry  to  have  the  War  come  to  an  end,  so 
great  had  been  my  change  of  view  towards  the  whole 
affair. 


XVIII 

ONE  day,  big  Bill  Tweed  dropped  in  on 
me  at  my  house  on  Union  Square.  He 
had  got  interested  in  Erie  speckilations 
some  time  before,  and  as  I  was  the  head  and  front 
of  Erie,  he  used  to  come  to  see  me  in  regard  to  turns 
in  the  stock.  His  old  Bowery  boys,  anyhow,  had 
been  in  large  part  butchers'  apprentices.  I  had 
known  the  New  York  butchers  since  earliest  days. 
So  I  had  been  in  close  touch  with  Tweed's  rank 
and  file  for  a  long  time  back,  even  when  he  was 
foreman  of  the  "Big  Six"  Engine  Company,  and 
had  got  into  trouble  with  that  other  engine  company 
for  blocking  their  way  to  a  fire  so  his  company 
could  get  there  first.  (It  had  been  those  butcher 
boys  then  which  had  stood  by  him  and  had  helped 
him  out  of  that  trouble.)  So,  when  he  went  into 
politics,  I  was  glad  to  get  in  with  him  personally, 
because  he  was  becoming  a  person  of  importance 
in  the  affairs  of  the  city.  It's  always  an  advantage 
to  a  big  operator  in  the  Street  to  be  on  personal 
terms  with  political  leaders. 

Tweed  had  in  turn  seen  that  it  stood  him  in  hand 
to  be  on  intimate  terms   with   me.     After  he   had 

163 


1 64         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

got  out  of  the  chair  business,  which  his  father  had 
built  up  before  him  down  on  Pearl  Street,  he  had 
got  into  Erie  speculations  good  and  deep.  Erie 
shares  had  got  to  be  the  leading  speckilation  on 
the  market.  For,  as  head  of  that  road,  I  had  found 
ways  of  using  its  shares  in  Wall  Street  whereby  I 
could  sometimes  make  a  turn  of  ten  points  in  Erie 
inside  of  a  month.  A  stock  that  bobs  back  and 
forth  as  suddenly  as  that,  is  going  to  be  followed 
by  a  great  crowd  of  speckilators.  Tweed  was  one 
of  these.  He  thought  he  could  make  more  money 
speckilating  in  Erie  than  he  could  by  making  chairs. 
So  he  gave  up  that  business,  and  put  all  of  his  money 
into  Wall  Street  —  mostly  into  Erie. 

On  the  day  that  I  am  speaking  of,  I  saw  that  he 
was  grumpy  over  these  Erie  ventures  of  his.  He 
was  as  cross  as  two  sticks.  I  used  to  take  my  visitors 
up  into  the  sitting  room  on  the  first  floor,  facing 
the  Square.  (Why,  in  the  plush  rocking-chair  in 
that  room,  Jimmy  Fisk  sat  and  talked  with  me 
the  very  morning  of  the  day  he  was  shot.)  Well, 
as  soon  as  Tweed  came  in  and  was  seated,  I  saw 
at  once  that  he  was  all  het  up  about  something  or 
other.  He  Started  right  in.  He  said  I  and  my 
Erie  crowd  were  no  better  than  a  crew  of  blood 
suckers;  and  he  swore  profanely.  He  had  been 
brought  pretty  near  to  busting  up,  so  he  said.  And 
he  told  of  the  pile  of  money  he  had  lost,  how  it  had 
crippled  him  up,  and  such-like. 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          165 

I  let  him  go  on.  It's  a  good  thing  to  let  a  loser 
talk.  I  could  well  believe  that  what  he  was  saying 
about  his  losses  in  Erie  was  true.  Because  he  had 
been  one  of  the  outsiders  in  that  stock.  What's 
the  use  of  being  on  the  inside  if  you  don't  have 
the  advantage  over  speckilators  who  are  on  the 
outside  ?  And  he  had  been  one  of  these.  Green 
wood  makes  the  hottest  fire  —  it's  so  full  of  sap. 
But  I  didn't  say  these  things  to  Tweed.  I  was 
afraid  it  would  only  make  him  madder.  Soft  words 
quench  more  than  a  bucket  of  water.  He  was 
already  mad  enough,  goodness  knows.  He  pawed 
around  like  a  horse  with  the  colic  —  said  that  the 
points  I  had  given  him  on  Erie  hadn't  been  worth 
a  hill  of  beans.  He  even  said  I  had  fooled  him  on 
purpose! 

"And  a  pretty  go  you've  brought  me  to,  Dan 
Drew,"  said  he.  He  sputtered  like  a  tea-kettle 
when  it's  boiling  over.  Tweed  was  a  big,  thick- 
mouthed  fellow;  when  he  got  excited  he  would  spit 
out  his  words  so  you  could  hardly  understand  him. 
"You  have  gone  and  drained  me  dry!  Busted  me! 
Busted  my  father,  too!  The  old  man's  all  broke 
up  over  it!  He  says  I've  taken  the  bread  out  of 
his  mouth  to  pour  into  Wall  Street.  I  can't  go  home 
any  more  without  he  curses  me  up  hill  and  down. 
He  says  he'll  throw  it  in  my  teeth  at  Judgment 
Day  for  taking  the  bread  out  of  an  old  man's  mouth. 
—  And  the  business  is  gone! --That  dad  of 


i66         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

mine  worked  a  lifetime  to  build  up  that  chair 
business!  And  now  it's  been  swept  away!  And 
where' s  the  money  gone  ?  I'll  tell  you  where  it's 
gone!  It's  gone  to  build  such  fine  brown-stone 
mansions  as  the  one  you're  living  in  right  at  this 
minute!  And  if  you  don't  begin  to  do  something 
for  me,  Drew,"  said  he,  "I'm  going  to  get  back  at 
you!  Sweet  Jesus!  Do  you  think  I'm  going  to 
be  a  sucker  and  let  you  hook  me  like  this  all  the 
time  ?  I  took  the  points  you've  been  giving  me, 
thinking  you  were  on  the  square.  And  you've 
done  me  dirt!  When  you've  let  me  win  once,  you've 
turned  around  and  sucked  it  all  back  the  very  next 
day!  .  .  .  And  it  don't  go  any  longer,  Dan.  You 
fellows  in  Erie  have  got  to  take  me  in  with  you. 
That's  all  there  is  to  it.  Or  I'll  make  it  so  hot  for 
you,  you'll  wish  you'd  never  been  born!" 

I  let  him  go  on.  Big  barkers  are  small  biters. 
I  knew  that  if  be  blustered  around  like  that  before 
hand,  he  wouldn't  do  much.  It's  the  still  fellows 
that  I've  always  been  scared  of.  There's  Vander- 
bilt.  One  of  his  mottoes  used  to  be:  "Never 
tell  anybody  what  you're  going  to  do  until  you've 
done  it."  When  he  was  going  to  rip  a  Tellow,  he'd 
never  let  that  fellow  know  beforehand.  Beware 
of  quiet  dogs  and  still  waters.  So  I  let  Tweed  have 
it  out  in  talk.  Anyhow,  he  wasn't  so.  poor  as  he 
tried  to  make  out.  He  had  a  diamond  in  his  shirt- 
bosom  which  looked  as  big  as  an  engine's  head- 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW          167 

light.  And  he  went  around  town  with  a  coach 
and  a  team  of  horses.  I  suppose  it  cost  him  more 
to  support  his  kept  women,  than  it  would  an  ordinary 
householder  to  take  care  of  a  home. 

By  and  by  he  got  over  his  fury.  Then  I  began 
to  talk.  I  called  him  "Bill"!  Tweed  was  a  man 
that  had  a  lot  of  good  in  his  heart,  spite  of  all 
that  his  enemies  say  against  him.  I  always  found 
i  could  do  more  with  him  by  kindness  than  in  any 
other  way.  You  need  smooth  wedges  to  get  into 
a  knotty  piece  of  timber. 

"Bill,"  said  I,  "why  don't  you  get  into  Congress 
again  ?  You've  got  gifts." 

"Congress!"  said  he.  "Congress  is  the  pokiest 
old  hole  under  heaven!  Any  young  squirt  can  go 
down  to  Washington  and,  if  he's  got  the  gift  of 
gab,  can  cut  a  figure.  But  as  to  money-making, 
there's  nothing  down  there  for  a  man  of  talent. 
I  suppose  I  know  more  Parliamentary  Law  than 
anybody  in  Congress.  But  that  doesn't  make  any 
money  for  you.  I  can  make  more  in  six  months 
as  Street  Commissioner  of  New  York,  than  I  could 
in  Congress  in  a  hundred  years.  All  they  talk  about 
down  there  is  Fugitive  Slave  Laws.  I'd  like  to 
know  what  in  thunder  I  care  about  Fugitive  Slave 
Laws!  I  never  was  interested  in  niggers,  anyhow. 
They're  no  good.  I've  got  a  lot  of  them  now,  over 
there  in  that  ward  by  the  river.  But  they  don't 
stay  fixed  like  my  Sixth  Warders  do.  They're  all 


i68         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

the  time  flopping  to  the  other  side,  particularly  now 
that  the  War  has  set  in.  I've  got  to  have  money. 
My  expenses  are  heavy.  I  can't  live  like  one  of 
your  goody-goods.  And  if  you  big  wigs  don't  take 
me  in  with  you,  you'll  wish  you  had." 

I  turned  on  him  sort  of  cool-like.  "  Bill,"  said  I, 
"how  would  you  like  to  go  in  with  a  street  railway 
deal  ?  You  are  a  Commissioner  of  Streets  for  the 
city.  I  guess  you  have  a  lot  to  do  also  with  the 
Common  Council,  don't  you  ?" 

"I  should  say  I  had,"  said  he.  "I've  got  a  ring 
in  the  nose  of  every  mother's  son  of  them." 

"Well,"  said  I,  "have  you  been  following  that 
application  of  some  New  York  parties  up  at  Albany 
to  get  a  franchise  to  lay  a  pair  of  steel  rails  down 
Broadway  ?" 

"Yes,"  he  replied;   "a  little." 

"Has  it  occurred  to  you  that  those  fellows  in  the 
Legislature  —  the    Assemblymen    and    Senators  - 
would    turn    a    pretty  penny,  if  they  were  allowed 
to  dispose  of  the  Broadway  franchise  ? " 

"Of  course,  they  would,"  said  Tweed.  "I'd 
like  to  know  what  earthly  right  they  have  to  meddle 
with  New  York  City  affairs.  This  is  our  hunting 
ground.  They  had  better  keep  off." 

"Just  what  I  was  thinking  of,"  said  I.  "And 
they  tell  me  that  Vanderbilt  is  starting  in  to  head 
that  Albany  proposition  off  on  his  own  account; 
because,  in  the  charter  of  his  Harlem  Railroad, 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          169 

there  is  a  clause  permitting  him  to  extend  his  tracks 
down  Broadway,  whenever  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen 
of  New  York  City  give  their  consent." 

Tweed  began  to  prick  up  his  ears.  He  was  a 
quick  fellow  to  arrive  at  your  meaning.  He  had 
a  shrewd  headpiece.  It's  true  that  women  could 
lead  him  around  by  the  nose.  (The  same  with 
Richard  Connolley  -  "Slippery  Dick/'  we  used 
to  call  him.  That  woman  of  his  whom  he 
picked  up  from  the  Turkish  Bath  where  she  had 
been  an  attendant,  used  to  play  him  all  kinds  of 
tricks,  and  he  wasn't  any  the  wiser.  If  it  had  been 
a  man,  Dick  would  have  seen  through  him  at  once.) 
But  in  other  ways  Tweed  was  very  knowing.  He 
now  listened  close. 

I  then  went  on  to  show  how  we  could  work  the 
Common  Council  in  such  a  way  as  to  squeeze  Vander- 
bilt  in  his  Harlem-Broadway  enterprise,  and  make  a 
neat  little  sum  out  of  it. 

We  became  friends  again,  whereas  it  had  looked 
pretty  squally  half  an  hour  before.  Tweed  was 
a  gunpowder  fellow.  He  got  mad  quick  and  got 
over  it  quick.  Now  that  I  had  promised  to  help 
him  get  back  by  this  Harlem-Railroad  deal  some 
of  the  money  he  had  lost,  he  was  willing  to  be  on 
good  terms  again  with  me. 


XIX 

THE  Harlem  Railroad  was  the  offspring 
of  the  stage-coach  that  used  to  run  by 
my  "Bull's  Head"  tavern.  That  stage 
line  was  from  Park  Row,  New  York  City,  up  to 
Harlem  Village,  above  where  noth  Street  now  is. 
As  the  people  moved  out  from  New  York  and  settled 
up  in  that  section,  Harlem  grew  to  be  a  good-sized 
town.  When  railroads  were  at  last  seen  to  be 
practicable  things,  a  line  of  rails  was  laid  from  that 
village  down  to  New  York,  and  was  called  the  Har 
lem  Railroad  —  because  it  went  to  Harlem  Village. 
The  rails  were  not  laid  along  the  Old  Boston  Road. 
It  would  have  scared  the  horses.  Anyhow,  the 
stage-coach  people  didn't  like  the  new-fangled 
steam  buggies  any  too  much,  and  never  would  have 
allowed  their  post-roads  to  be  encroached  upon  in 
that  fashion.  So  the  rails  were  laid  a  little  to  the 
west  of  the  Boston  Road,  where  Fourth  Avenue 
now  runs. 

The  Harlem  railroad  first  along  wasn't  much 
thought  of.  Its  stock  just  before  the  War  sold  as 
low  as  eight  dollars  a  share.  But,  instead  of  allow 
ing  it  to  stop  with  Harlem  Village,  they  now  began 

170 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          171 

to  run  it  up  through  the  Harlem  Valley,  where  I 
used  to  drive  my  critters  down  from  Putnam  County 
to  the  city.  By  and  by  it  got  clean  up  to  Brewsters'. 
Vanderbilt  about  this  time  had  a  lot  of  loose  money, 
and  began  to  invest  in  the  stock  of  this  railroad. 
His  friends  laughed  at  him.  They  thought  the 
shares  were  hardly  worth  the  paper  they  were  printed 
on  —  said  the  road  would  go  up  the  spout  soon  or 
late.  But  he  kept  at  it,  and  by  and  by  owned  a 
big  block  of  stock.  I  got  in,  too,  and  soon  owned 
considerable  of  it. 

The  depot  was  down  on  Fourth  Avenue  at  Twenty- 
sixth  Street.  The  trains  didn't  run  all  the  way 
down  there.  It  was  thought  that  engines  were  not 
fitted  for  climbing  hills.  So  four  horses  used  to 
take  each  car  out  from  the  station  and  draw  it 
through  the  streets  up  to  Forty-third  Street.  There 
the  cars  were  made  up  into  a  train  and  hitched  onto 
an  engine  which  took  them  flying  out  to  Brewsters'. 
By  and  by  Vanderbilt  got  rid  of  that  bothersome 
Murray  Hill  which  stood  square  in  the  middle  of 
his  car  line,  by  digging  a  tunnel  right  through  the 
bowels  of  it. 

This  tunnel  made  the  Commodore  very  proud 
of  himself.  A  good  many  people  had  said,  when 
he  had  begun  the  tunnel,  that  it  was  too  big  a  job  - 
that  he  couldn't  go  through  with  it.  But  he  had 
done  it--  had  widened  Fourth  Avenue  forty  feet 
in  order  to  make  room  —  and  now  was  so  vain- 


1 72         THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

glorious  that  he  planned  a  still  bigger  scheme.  He 
would  take  that  street-railway  end  of  his  Harlem 
Railroad  and  continue  it  down  from  Twenty-sixth 
Street  to  Fourteenth,  there  turn  the  corner  over 
into  Broadway,  and  then  run  it  all  the  way  to  the 
Battery.  By  this  time  Broadway  had  become  a 
much-travelled  thoroughfare.  A  street-car  line 
through  it  would  be  a  money-maker.  Here  is  where, 
by  means  of  taking  the  Common  Council  into  our 
partnership,  Tweed  and  I  got  in  our  scheme. 

I  set  to  work.  I  bought  some  more  of  the  Harlem 
stock.  (The  price  had  got  away  beyond  that 
eight-dollar  figure.)  Then,  when  I  and  the  rest  of 
us  who  were  on  the  deal  had  got  pretty  well  loaded 
up  with  Harlem,  we  got  the  Common  Council  to 
pass  an  ordinance  permitting  Vanderbilt  to  go  ahead 
and  lay  his  rails  down  Broadway.  The  Mayor 
signed  it.  Instantly,  the  stock  went  soaring.  The 
Legislature  up  at  Albany  were  mad  as  hornets. 
They  saw  all  the  good  fat  pickings  going  to  the 
Aldermen  and  Councilmen  of  New  York  City, 
rather  than  to  themselves.  But  they  couldn't  do 
anything;  because  there  was  the  clause  in  Van- 
derbilt's  old  Harlem  Charter,  permitting  such  a 
thing  to  be  done  whenever  the  New  York  City 
authorities  gave  their  consent.  The  "  Chancellors- 
ville  Rise"  came  along  just  at  this  moment  and 
also  helped.  Hooker,  with  what  he  called  "the  finest 
army  on  the  planet,"  had  for  months  been  watching 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          173 

the  rebels.  At  last  he  had  crossed  the  Rappa- 
hannock  and  advanced  against  the  enemy.  We  in 
Wall  Street  began  to  hold  our  breath  for  fear  lest 
he'd  end  the  war  then  and  there,  and  our  period 
of  prosperity  come  to  an  end.  But  he  retreated 
and  now  was  on  this  side  the  Rappahannock  once 
more.  It  was  a  great  relief.  Stocks  rose  all  along 
the  line.  For  we  saw  now  that  we'd  have  a  longer 
spell  of  war-time  speckilation.  Harlem  went  up 
along  with  the  other  stocks. 

With  Harlem's  stock  up  at  a  high  figure,  and 
continually  soaring  higher,  I  saw  what  seemed 
the  favourable  moment  to  make  our  move.  So 
we  began  to  sell  the  stock  short.  In  order  to  start 
a  Bear  campaign,  you  must  first  balloon  the  stock 
sky-high.  Because  when  you  are  a  Bear  you  sell 
when  the  stock  is  high,  and  deliver  when  the  stock 
is  low  (that  is,  if  the  deal  turns  out  right).  Your 
profit  is  the  difference  between  those  two  figures  - 
the  greater  the  difference,  the  greater  your  profit. 
Besides,  it  is  usually  easier  to  put  out  a  line  of  shorts 
when  the  market  is  high.  Through  some  kink  or 
other  in  human  nature,  the  ordinary  run  of  people 
are  bullish  and  hopeful  towards  a  stock  when  it's 
high.  The  stock  has  gone  up  so  finely,  they  suppose 
it's  going  to  keep  on  going  up,  and  you  usually  find 
them  ready  buyers  of  your  short  sales. 

This  was  true  in  the   present  case.     The  stock 
never  looked  to  have  better  prospects  than  it  did 


174         THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

just  now.  The  Harlem  Railroad  was  already  earn 
ing  money,  because  it  went  through  the  rich  Harlem 
Valley.  And  now,  with  the  Broadway  franchise 
added,  the  road  was  bound  to  roll  up  big  dividends 
for  everybody  who  owned  anything  in  it.  So,  at 
least,  most  of  the  people  figured.  Thus,  when 
our  Bear  crowd  began  to  sell  the  stock  short,  people 
snapped  at  our  offers  of  the  stock  like  a  pike  bites 
at  a  shiner. 

Then  we  told  the  Aldermen  and  Councilmen 
that  the  time  had  come  to  touch  off  the  fireworks. 
So  they  met.  Tweed  was  a  master  hand,  anyhow, 
in  manipulating  a  legislative  body.  He  could  make 
them  do  'most  anything  he  wanted.  He  was  a  big, 
overgrown  chap,  full  of  spirits,  and  could  boss  men 
around  like  sheep  or  cattle.  The  Board  and  Com 
mon  Council  took  our  orders.  They  passed  an 
ordinance  reconsidering  their  former  decision  as  to 
the  Broadway  franchise.  Then  they  rescinded 
the  grant. 

Harlem  dropped  like  a  shot  partridge.  Vander- 
bilt  and  his  crowd  thought,  when  the  Aldermen  had 
finally  been  brought  to  pass  the  measure,  that  the 
franchise  was  then  as  good  as  gold.  He  didn't 
realize  that  there  were  some  of  us  who  had  inside 
power  with  the  City  Fathers  and  could  turn  a  trick 
or  two.  Vanderbilt,  who  believed  in  getting  a 
thing  done  and  then  let  them  howl,  was  starting 
to  dig  up  the  street  and  lay  his  rails.  We  got  an 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          175 

injunction  from  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  pro 
hibiting  the  laying  of  the  track.  We  thought  now 
that  the  stock,  which  had  been  at  seventy-five, 
would  drop  to  fifty.  But  something  happened.  The 
court  dissolved  our  injunction.  Vanderbilt  sus 
tained  the  market.  And,  do  the  best  we  could, 
the  price  refused  to  sag  below  seventy-three.  The 
city  politicians  were  for  the  most  part  men  of  small 
means.  Their  margins  were  soon  exhausted.  They 
were  sold  out.  I  had  been  a  heavy  owner  of  Harlem 
in  my  own  right,  so  I  myself  got  out  of  the  hole  in 
fairly  good  shape. 

Then  the  battle-field  shifted  to  Albany.  A 
favourable  report  was  purposely  given  out  from 
the  Legislature  as  to  the  prospects  for  a  Broadway 
franchise  for  the  Harlem  Railroad.  Harlem  jumped 
from  seventy-five  to  one  hundred  and  fifty.  Know 
ing  something  of  what  was  to  happen  behind  the 
scenes,  I,  in  the  face  of  all  these  appearances,  went 
and  committed  myself  heavily  to  the  short  side. 
Because  this  favourable  report  which  had  been  sent 
out  was  only  a  blind;  as  soon  as  the  stock,  in  obedi 
ence  to  it,  jumped  up,  the  legislators  at  Albany 
sold  the  stock  short,  for  a  decline.  Then  they  out 
with  their  trick  —  they  turned  and  defeated  Van- 
derbilt's  bill.  In  two  days  the  price  fell  fifty  points. 
But  just  as  I  was  beginning  to  count  my  profits, 
the  ticker  began  to  tell  another  story  —  the  stock 
turned.  It  went  up  to  127;  to  140;  to  150;  yes, 


176         THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

to  185.  I  saw  at  once  that  our  boat,  which  had  been 
sailing  so  prosperous,  had  struck  some  kind  of  a 
snag.  And  the  nature  of  it  wasn't  very  long  coming 
to  light  —  we  had  sold  short  27,000  more  shares 
of  stock  than  there  were  in  the  whole  capital  of  the 
road.  We  were  in  a  corner.  Our  efforts  to  wiggle 
out  only  raised  the  price  of  the  stock  still  higher. 
It  touched  285.  Even  at  that  figure  we  couldn't 
buy  any.  Vanderbilt  had  us  tight. 

It  was  a  case  of  compromise.  When  delivery 
time  came,  I  went  up  to  see  him.  He  had  his  office 
on  Fourth  Street.  We  had  a  long  talk  together. 
I  said  there  was  no  use  beating  around  the  bush  - 
I  was  cornered  —  I  couldn't  make  my  deliveries 
- 1  might  as  well  own  up  first  as  last.  I  told 
him  that  in  this  particular  deal  he  had  been  too  smart 
for  me.  We  had  oversold  the  market.  I  wanted  to 
make  terms.  I  told  him  that  I  looked  to  lose  some 
money  in  the  affair,  and  asked  him  to  make  it 
as  small  as  he  could.  I  showed  him  that  customers 
are  like  fiddle-strings  —  you  mustn't  screw  them 
too  tight.  Anyhow,  he  was  in  a  position  to  let  me 
off  scot  free,  if  he  felt  so  inclined.  Because  he  was 
squeezing  loads  of  profit  out  of  the  other  fellows  in 
my  crowd,  and  so  could  afford  to  let  me  go  free. 
I  reminded  him  how  he  and  I  had  been  old  friends; 
in  fact,  I  had  named  my  boy  "William  Henry," 
after  his  boy. 

But  Vanderbilt  didn't  soften.     "Drew,"  said   he, 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          177 

"this  isn't  a  game  of  croquet  that  we  are  playing. 
It's  man's  business,  this  thing  we  call  Wall  Street. 
And  it  isn't  going  to  do  you  any  good  to  chat  about 
old  steamboat  days.  You  tried  to  corner  me,  and 
you've  got  your  fingers  caught  while  you  were  set 
ting  the  trap.  If  Harlem  had  dropped  to  75,  instead 
of  rising  to  285,  would  you  have  helped  stand 
my  loss  ?  You  are  cornered  tight,  and  now  you've 
got  to  pay  up.  Turn  over  to  me  all  of  your  per 
sonal  property  —  I'll  let  you  keep  your  real  estate 
-  and  we'll  call  the  thing  settled." 

I  saw  then  that  I  was  in  for  it.  But  I  kept  up  a 
bold  countenance.  I  said:  "All  right,  Cornelius 
Vanderbilt.  If  you  are  so  hard-hearted  as  to  forget 
a  friend,  I  won't  speak  of  that  any  more.  But  I 
want  you  to  understand  that  you  haven't  got  your 
money  yet.  My  contract  with  you  merely  reads 
that  you  can  call  upon  me  for  so  many  thousand 
shares  of  Harlem  stock.  It  doesn't  say  anything 
about  my  delivering  the  stock  to  you.  Call  all  you 
wish.  If  you  want  to  wrestle  this  thing  out  in  the 
courts,  we'll  wrestle  it."  I  thought  maybe  that 
threat  of  litigation  would  scare  him.  But  it  didn't. 

"After  this,  never  sell  what  you  haven't  got, 
Dannie;  never  sell  what  you  haven't  got,"  was  all 
the  answer  he  made.  "Don't  put  it  in  any  man's 
power  to  ruin  you.  By-bye." 

I  left  him.  But  the  truth  is,  in  that  threat  I'd 
made,  I  had  appeared  braver  than  I  really  was.  I 


178         THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

thought  for  a  spell  of  laying  down  on  my  contracts 
and  telling  Vanderbilt  right  to  his  face  that  I  didn't 
care  how  much  paper  of  mine  he  held,  he  couldn't 
collect  it  and  that's  all  there  was  to  it.  But  the 
trouble  is,  that  would  have  given  me  a  black  eye 
on  the  Street.  Wall  Street  conducts  its  deals  on  a 
"Pay-up"  principle — when  you've  made  a  con 
tract,  keep  it.  They  don't  look  with  favour  on 
any  one  who  tries  to  squirm  out.  The  Stock 
Exchange  Board  jacks  you  up  good  and  quick  if 
you  don't  live  up  to  your  word.  I  didn't  want  to 
hurt  my  future  in  the  Street.  As  to  the  law  courts, 
they  also  didn't  offer  me  much  help;  because  they 
hold  that  the  paper  you  have  given  to  the  other  fellow 
makes  a  legal  contract,  which  you  must  live  up  to. 
So  there  I  was.  I  thought  of  turning  to  Tweed. 
He  controlled  many  of  the  judges,  and  I  might  get 
ofFin  that  way.  But  just  now  I  wasn't  in  very  thick 
with  Tweed.  This  whole  affair  of  the  Harlem 
corner  hadn't  helped  him  hardly  any  more  than  it 
had  me.  We  had  started  out  to  squeeze  Vanderbilt; 
and,  unfortunately,  we  had  got  squeezed  ourselves. 
So  that  Tweed  just  now  was  in  a  bad  humour. 
Besides,  his  pride  had  suffered  a  fall.  At  Henry 
Clay's  funeral,  Tweed's  oration  in  the  Board  of 
Aldermen,  a  kind  of  a  funeral  sermon  over  the 
life  and  death  of  Clay,  was  something  he 
had  taken  a  great  pride  in.  It  was  the  first 
public  speech  he  had  ever  made.  And,  as  it  now 


THE  BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW          179 

turned  out,  it  was  his  last.  From  becoming  a 
great  statesman  and  a  moulder  of  public  opinion, 
Tweed,  because  of  this  Harlem  affair,  had  suddenly 
taken  a  fall.  For  when  he  and  his  Aldermen  passed 
Vanderbilt' s  Broadway  franchise  measure,  it  had 
been  in  violation  of  Judge  Duer's  injunction,  and 
Duer  got  so  mad  that  he  up  and  put  the  whole 
Board  of  City  Fathers,  Tweed  along  with  the  rest, 
in  jail.  Tweed  was  terribly  worked  up  over  it. 
He  saw  that  he  couldn't  be  a  statesman  and  a  leader 
of  public  opinion,  after  such  a  mishap  as  that;  and 
he  got  almighty  sore  about  it.  To  mention  Harlem 
to  him  now  was  like  a  red  rag  to  a  bull.  He  sput 
tered  and  swore  so  profanely,  when  I'd  try  to  talk 
with  him  about  it,  that  I  saw  it  wasn't  much  use. 
Nevertheless,  I  used  it  as  an  argument  with 
Vanderbilt.  Going  to  the  Commodore  again,  I 
told  him  that  I  had  come  to  make  a  settlement  if 
he  was  in  the  mood  for  it.  I  hinted  that  I  had  more 
or  less  of  an  inside  track  with  the  law  courts  of 
New  York  City,  since  I  knew  some  of  the  politicians 
pretty  close;  and  that  if  he  wranted  to  fight  it  out 
to  a  finish,  I  could  make  a  peck  of  trouble  for  him. 
He  knew  that  I  was  more  or  less  in  with  Tweed, 
the  Street  Commissioner  of  New  York  City,  and  his 
crowd,  and  Vanderbilt's  future  plans  had  a  whole 
lot  to  do  with  the  use  of  New  York  City  streets.  We 
came  to  a  settlement.  Vanderbilt  had  a  lot  of 
enterprises  under  way,  and  didn't  want  to  get  into 


i8o         THE  BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW 

litigation  if  he  could  help  it  —  he  said  he  didn't 
have  time  to  bother.  So  we  hit  upon  a  figure  at 
which  I  could  settle  my  contracts.  I  wrote  my 
check,  and  the  thing  was  finished.  It  cost  me  well- 
nigh  half  a  million.  But  I  was  glad  to  get  out 
even  at  that  figure.  Because  it  left  me  something, 
and  for  a  time  it  looked  as  though  I  might  be  stripped 
of  all  my  goods.  When  you're  cornered  in  selling 
shares  short,  you  are  in  a  terrible  fix.  The  fellow 
who  has  cornered  you,  if  he  is  so  minded,  can  take 
every  last  cent  you've  got.  Because,  as  I  have  put 
it  in  the  form  of  a  poem  (I'm  not  much  of  a  rhymer, 
but  I  suppose  I  could  have  turned  my  hand  to  verse- 
making  if  I  had  set  my  mind  to  it): 

"He  that  sells  what  isn't  his'n, 
Must  buy  it  back,  or  go  to  prison." 

This  Harlem  corner  did  me  more  hurt  than 
just  the  loss  of  the  money.  To  hand  over  a  half- 
million  in  cold  cash  did  me  lots  of  damage.  And  I 
couldn't  blame  it  on  anybody  else,  either.  I  felt 
like  a  cow  that  had  stuck  herself.  Besides,  it  hurt 
me  in  the  Street.  They  snickered  at  me  now  when 
I  was  coming  to  my  office,  or  going  home  at  night  - 
would  nudge  each  other  when  they  saw  me  passing, 
and  whisper:  "He  went  short  of  Harlem."  In 
fact,  that  got  to  be  a  saying  on  the  Street,  to  mean 
any  kind  of  a  hard-luck  blow. 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW          181 

The  poor  legislators  at  Albany  also  were  hard 
hit  by  the  corner.  Some  of  them  had  to  leave  Albany 
at  the  end  of  the  session  without  paying  their  board- 
bill.  As  for  me,  I  spit  on  my  hands  and  took  a 
new  holt. 


XX 


THE  Harlem  loss  made  a  big  hole  in  my 
heart.  And  some  might  suppose  that 
I  was  so  in  the  dumps  by  it  that  I  became 
sour  and  backslided  from  religion.  But  they  would 
be  mistaken.  I  know  there  are  people  who  serve 
God  only  so  long  as  they  are  prosperous.  When 
an  unlucky  stroke  falls,  they  curse  religion.  But  I 
don't.  It  doesn't  do  any  good.  Spit  against 
Heaven,  and  it  will  fall  back  into  your  own  face. 
Besides,  the  Lord  doesn't  guarantee  to  make  a 
man  prosperous  in  each  and  every  undertaking. 
It  isn't  all  butter  that  comes  from  the  cow;  only 
a  part  is  worked  up  into  butter;  and  in  some  churn- 
ings  the  butter  won't  come  at  all,  no  matter  how 
hard  you  work  the  splasher. 

Besides,  I  have  found  that  religion  is  often  most 
needed  just  in  the  times  when  you  are  in  the  dumps. 

"  From  every  stormy  wind  that  blows, 
From  every  swelling  tide  of  woes, 
There  is  a  calm,  a  sure  retreat; 
'Tis  found  beneath  the  mercy  seat." 

More  than  that,  I  had  by  this  time  invested  a 

182 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          183 

whole  lot  of  money  in  my  church,  and  couldn't 
afford  to  lose  it.  The  trustees  of  the  old  Mulberry 
Street  Meeting  House,  when  they  saw  the  people 
moving  up  town,  wanted  to  move  the  church  up 
also,  and  be  in  the  heart  of  the  residential  district. 
I  helped  this  plan  along.  It  wasn't  fit,  now  that  I 
had  become  one  of  the  money  kings,  that  I  should 
worship  in  a  dingy  building  down  on  Mulberry 
Street.  I  told  the  trustees  I  would  help  them  build 
a  new  meeting  house.  They  jumped  at  the  offer. 
That  big  marble  structure  on  Fourth  Avenue,  at 
the  corner  of  Twenty-second  Street,  is  the  result. 
We  had  big  doings  when  the  new  church  was 
finally  dedicated.  It  happened,  I  remember,  on  a 
Sunday  morning  in  early  May.  Dr.  Durbin 
preached  the  sermon.  His  text  was:  "Behold  the 
Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the 
world."  Dr.  Durbin  was  a  master  hand  at  theological 
exposition.  He  knew  as  much  about  the  fine  points 
of  doctrine  as  'most  any  man  I  ever  met.  He  was 
learned  in  the  Scriptures.  He  was  an  advocate  of 
free  grace,  and  could  argue  for  hours,  for  he  was  a 
man  of  strong  convictions.  He  felt  the  importance 
of  right  theological  thinking.  In  fact,  he  never 
seemed  so  happy  as  when  he  was  upholding  the  true 
Faith  and  attacking  dangerous  forms  of  doctrine. 
He  was  a  positive  man;  so  much  so  that  in  matters 
of  theology  he  and  I  didn't  always  agree.  But  I 
had  to  admire  his  courage.  The  Prophets  of  the 


1 84         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

Old  Testament  times,  I  suppose,  were  not  always 
loved  by  everybody.  Prophets  often  have  to  speak 
plain  truth  and  hurt  people's  feelings.  So,  when 
Dr.  Durbin's  ideas  didn't  just  jibe  with  mine  —  say, 
in  the  matter  of  Justification  and  Holiness,  con 
cerning  which  we  had  some  little  difference  of  belief, 
for  I  have  always  held  that  the  witness  of  our  con 
version  carries  with  it  justifying  grace  and  will  of 
itself,  in  time,  sanctify  every  unhallowed  affection  - 
I  didn't  hold  it  against  him;  he  meant  all  right, 
anyhow. 

On  the  present  occasion,  however,  his  views 
agreed  with  mine  to  a  T.  There  haven't  been  many 
discourses  from  the  sacred  desk  that  have  done  me 
more  good  than  this  one.  For  he  outlined  the  plan 
of  salvation.  He  showed  how  wonderfully  we,  the 
converted,  had  been  delivered  from  our  lost  and 
fallen  estate.  In  picturing  the  sin-sick  soul,  he  didn't 
use  any  lady-words.  It  was  a  soul,  he  said,  that 
had  no  light,  either  above  or  round  about;  and  in 
that  state,  said  he,  all  of  us  who  were  there  in  that 
congregation  had  at  some  time  or  other  been.  God's 
wrath  had  burned  against  us  while  we  were  in  that 
state  of  rebellion,  so  that  Justice,  in  its  righteous 
anger,  had  come  near  to  sink  us  into  Hell.  But 
Free  mercy  performed  the  great  transaction,  and  had 
plunged  us  into  the  crystal  stream.  The  blood  of 
sprinkling,  which  speaketh  better  things  than  the 
blood  of  Abel,  had  availed  to  cancel  all  our 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          185 

iniquities.  Justification  by  faith  alone  —  how 
the  speaker  brought  out  the  wondrous  comfort  in 
those  words! — sealed  the  vow.  Pardoning  mercy 
ratified  the  convenant;  and  now,  said  he,  our  ransom 
has  been  paid. 

"Salvation,  oh,  the  joyful  sound! 
What  pleasure  to  our  ears! 
A  sovereign  balm  for  every  wound, 
A  charm  for  all  our  fears." 

Our  High  Priest,  in  his  all-engaging  charms,  has 
expiated  our  sins.  We  are  under  the  blood. 

When  he  got  to  his  main  point,  of  how  we  are 
freely  justified  by  grace  through  faith,  the  great 
congregation  became  roused.  "Hallelujahs"  began 
to  be  heard  here  and  there.  I  could  well  see  why 
they  were  so  moved;  because  the  preacher  was  not 
only  showing  great  intellectual  power  in  this  dis 
course  of  his;  he  was  full  of  emotion  as  well,  and 
there  was  a  light  beaming  from  his  eyes.  Once  or 
twice  he  got  the  unction;  and  then  the  words  wouldn't 
come  fast  enough.  Our  own  righteousness,  he  went 
on  to  say,  is  but  as  filthy  rags.  Faith  in  the  all- 
cleansing  fountain,  that  is  to  be  our  crown  of  glory 
and  alone  our  sign  and  seal  of  salvation.  And  so, 
we,  clothed  in  imputed  righteousness  as  in  a  wedding 
garment,  are  summoned  to  the  marriage  supper  of 
the  Lamb.  And,  being  thus  clothed,  we  dread  now 
no  condemnation.  Our  surety  is  on  high.  The 


i86         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

blood  that  has  been  so  freely  shed  has  paid  the  debt  — 
all  the  debt  I  owe.  So  that,  with  unfeigned  sin 
cerity,  we  rest  in  our  glorious  advocate.  Filled 
with  his  righteousness,  the  sin-convincing  spirit 
now  passes  by  our  door,  as  it  did  the  Israelites  in 
Egypt  of  old.  For  it  sees  the  mark  of  the  blood 
on  the  lintels,  and  visits  its  doom  now  only  on  the 
homes  of  the  unregenerate.  The  pearly  gates 
swing  wide.  Glory  to  the  Lamb! 

When  the  preacher  was  through,  the  hymn  that 
followed  was  sung  in  a  way  to  show  that  the  earnest 
words  of  the  speaker  had  not  been  spoken  in  vain. 
There  was  a  volume  to  it  and  a  glory  that  doesn't 
come  as  a  tribute  to  mere  human  efforts. 

When  it  was  all  over,  and  the  benediction  had 
been  pronounced,  I  waited  for  Dr.  Durbin  to  come 
down  to  me.  Since  it  had  been  my  money  which 
had  really  made  this  large  and  beautiful  meeting 
house  possible,  this  dedication  service  was  one  in 
which  I  naturally  felt  a  personal  interest  —  yes, 
even  a  responsibility.  I  was,  therefore,  not  only 
pleased  but  greatly  relieved  that  the  service  had  gone 
off  so  prosperous.  Now  at  the  close  I  didn't  use 
many  words  in  expressing  my  sentiments  to  the 
preacher.  Sometimes  the  greatest  feeling  is  put 
into  the  fewest  words.  I  took  him  by  the  hand, 
pressed  it  warmly,  and  looking  him  in  the  eye, 
said:  "Brother  Durbin,  I  thank  you  for  that  ser 


mon." 


THE  BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW          187 

The  many  peaceful  and  soothing  hours  I  have 
spent  in  this  church  since  that  opening  day,  have 
repaid  me  all  the  money  I  gave  to  it.  To  be  sure, 
they  didn't  call  the  church  after  my  name;  but  city 
churches  don't  often  do  that.  Up  in  Carmel  they 
did.  And  I  don't  know  a  finer  kind  of  a  monument 
for  a  man  than  to  have  his  name  engraved  on  the 
front  of  some  fine  church.  Any  one  who  goes  up 
to  that  town  to-day  will  see  it  —  carved  in  solid 
stone,  right  over  the  doorway :  "  Daniel  Drew 
Church."  Some  of  the  people  in  Carmel  have  got 
to  calling  it  the  "St.  Daniel  Drew  Church."  But 
I  always  regarded  that  as  more  of  a  nick-name 
than  anything  else.  It's  a  caution,  anyhow,  the 
way  that  the  younger  generation  in  this  here  land 
of  ours,  gives  nick-names  to  things.  They  don't 
seem  to  have  reverence,  the  way  that  young  people 
used  to  have  in  my  day. 

Then  again,  there  is  the  Ladies'  Seminary  of 
mine,  in  Carmel.  Raymond,  the  circus  man  in 
that  village,  named  it  first  after  himself.  It  looked 
for  a  time  as  though  he  would  plant  his  family  name 
into  the  life  of  the  town  deeper  than  my  own  could 
be  planted.  Every  man  wants  his  family  name  to 
be  remembered,  at  least  in  his  native  town.  You 
can  stick  up  a  gravestone,  with  your  name  carved 
on  it.  But  that's  a  dead  thing.  But  put  the  money 
into  some  institution  —  that  will  go  on  living  year 
after  year;  you  have  hitched  yourself  now  to  some- 


i88         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

thing  that's  alive.  The  monument  would  have 
let  your  name  remain  unspoken,  for  marble  is 
dumb.  But  institutions  last  from  generation  to 
generation,  and  speak  out  your  name  constantly. 
It  is  worth  a  man's  while  to  build  two  or  three  of 
them  during  his  lifetime,  even  though  they  are  pretty 
costly  at  the  time.  Therefore,  I  was  glad  when 
the  way  opened  for  me  to  take  Raymond's  school 
and  make  it  into  "  Drew  Ladies'  Seminary."  About 
the  only  thing  Raymond  has  got  up  in  Carmel  now 
is  "Raymond  Hill,"  where  there's  a  burying  ground. 
A  burying  ground  is  a  dead  thing,  but  seminaries 
are  living  things.  Over  at  Brewsters',  also,  they 
were  building  their  church.  I  gave  to  it  $7,000. 
In  this  case  they  didn't  put  my  name  on  the  church. 
In  fact,  the  church  doesn't  bear  the  name  of  any 
person  at  all.  But  the  people  around  there  all 
know  that  if  it  hadn't  been  for  me  giving  a  plumb 
half  of  the  cost,  the  church  might  never  have  been 
built.  Perhaps  they  will  put  a  memorial  window 
in,  after  I  am  gone. 

But  I  don't  boast.  My  gifts  to  religion  and  such 
like  are  not  altogether  gifts.  They  are  a  sort  of  an 
investment.  I  have  always  held  that  what  you  give 
to  the  Lord  comes  back  to  you.  God  has  a  long 
memory.  For  a  time  he  may  not  seem  to  have 
noticed  your  gift,  and  you  think  most  likely  he  has 
forgot  all  about  it.  But  he  hasn't.  Such  things 
never  slip  his  mind.  Soon  or  late,  he  will  even  it 


THE   BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW         189 

up  with  you.  God  keeps  a  full  set  of  books.  He 
always  balances  his  accounts.  I  trust  his  book 
keeping.  Sometimes  I  have  given  money  to  him 
and  have  let  the  affair  slip  from  my  mind  altogether; 
because  I  knew  that  he  had  put  it  all  down  on  the 
right  side  of  his  ledger  and  would  take  care  of  the 
account. 

I  calculate  there  are  lots  of  business  men  who 
don't  prosper,  because  they  don't  give  to  the  Lord 
a  slice  of  their  profits.  They  try  to  hog  it  all.  When 
he  sees  that  sort  of  thing  going  on,  he  contrives 
to  put  a  spoke  in  their  wheel.  They  may  think  he 
doesn't  know  wjnat  they  are  doing,  but  he  does. 
God  wears  gum  shoes  when  he  comes  down  here 
upon  earth  to  spy.  He  doesn't  let  anybody  know 
he's  coming,  least  of  all  the  man  whom  he's  to  spy 
out.  These  men  are  like  Ananias  and  Sapphira. 
They  think  they  can  fool  the  Lord  as  to  how  much 
money  they  have,  and  so  cut  him  down  on  his  share. 
But  he  isn't  fooled.  To  give  a  percentage  to  the 
Lord  is  just  as  good  business  policy  as  to  pay  the 
taxes  on  your  house  and  lot.  In  either  case,  if  you 
don't  pay  up  good  and  prompt  you'll  sweat 
for  it. 

I  haven't  had  to  get  out  and  look  up  all  of  the 
money-making  things  I  have  gone  into.  Some 
times  they  have  come  knocking  at  my  door,  as 
though  they  had  been  mysteriously  sent.  And  often 
these  have  been  the  very  ones  that  have  turned  out 


igo         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

most  profitable.  There's  that  affair  with  the  man 
Parker,  from  the  West—  "California  Parker,"  they 
called  him,  because  he  came  from  the  Pacific  Coast. 
I  made  a  fine  penny  out  of  the  dicker  I  had  with 
him.  But  it  wasn't  altogether  my  own  doings. 
I  didn't  look  him  up.  It  was  as  though  I  sat  in 
my  office  and  he  came  and  made  me  a  present  of 
his  money.  I  guess  it  was  his  father  who  had  accumu 
lated  the  fortune;  and  now  the  son  had  got  it  and 
had  come  to  New  York  City,  to  swell  it  bigger,  as 
he  thought.  A  fat  calf  makes  the  sweetest  veal. 
Seeing  he  was  anxious,  I  took  him  into  a  pool  which 
I  was  carrying  on  just  then  for  the  purpose  of  Bull 
ing  Erie  shares.  Parker  came  to  me. 

"Mr.  Drew,"  said  he,  "I'm  willing  to  take  charge 
of  this,  if  you  say  so.  You  have  so  many  irons  in 
the  fire,  you  ought  to  be  glad  to  have  a  partner  help 
you  out  with  one  of  them.  I  am  willing  to  take  this 
particular  stock  campaign  off  from  your  shoulders. 
But  I  will  probably  need  your  help  before  I  get 
through.  I  think  I  can  boost  the  stock  a  number 
of  points.  But  in  order  to  get  it  to  the  notch  where 
it  will  stick  and  take  care  of  itself,  I  will  need  more 
funds  than  I  individually  have.  Therefore,  at  the 
right  time,  will  you  help  me  out  ?" 

I  said  of  course  I  would;  I'd  see  him  through. 
And  at  the  time  I  meant  it.  Because  I  owned  a 
large  block  of  Erie  shares  just  then,  and  was  only 
too  pleased  to  have  some  one  boost  them  for  me. 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          191 

He  thanked  me  and  went  away,  saying  that  he 
would  get  to  work  at  once. 

I  soon  saw  that  he  was  carrying  out  the  plan  with 
energy.  A  flood  of  buying  orders  poured  into  the 
market.  Erie  rose  point  by  point.  I  was  glad. 
Each  point  of  rise  meant  a  dollar  more  in  my 
pocket  for  every  share  I  held. 

By  and  by,  however,  I  became  less  Bullish  than 
I  had  been.  Parker's  buying  now  had  boosted  it 
from  100  clean  up  to  123.  I  thought  it  a  good  time 
to  get  rid  of  my  holdings.  It  never  does  to  over 
stay  a  market.  Wait  one  day  too  long,  and  you 
will  sometimes  miss  it  altogether.  In  Wall  Street 
the  secret  of  success  is  to  know  when  the  iron  is 
hot  and  then  strike.  Parker,  when  he  entered  into 
this  dicker  with  me,  had  almost  three  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  So  I  issued  an  order  to  my  broker 
(unbeknownst  to  anybody)  to  sell. 

I  didn't  dump  the  shares  onto  Parker  all  at  once. 
That  wouldn't  have  been  good  policy.  With  too 
big  an  amount  to  take  care  of  all  of  a  sudden,  he'd 
have  become  discouraged.  So  I  fed  the  stock  out 
to  him  by  driblets,  so  to  speak  —  didn't  want  to 
destroy  his  absorbing  power.  I  offered  it  only  in 
thousand  lots,  and  even  in  lots  of  five  hundred 
shares  each. 

I  was  glad  to  see  that  he  took  them;  and  this, 
too,  without  suspecting  anything.  The  blocks  being 
so  small,  he  like  as  not  thought  they  were  coming 


i92         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

from  scattered  parties  throughout  the  country,  here 
one  and  there  one.  Towards  the  end,  however,  in 
order  to  get  rid  of  all  my  holdings  whilst  the  price 
was  at  the  top-notch  and  before  the  market  broke,  I 
dumped  rather  heavy  blocks  of  it  onto  him.  At 
one  time  I  was  scared.  I  feared  I  had  overdone 
the  thing.  Because  the  price  sagged  like  old  Sambo. 
It  looked  as  though  I  had  unloaded  onto  Parker  a 
jag  of  the  stock  that  was  too  heavy  for  him.  But 
he  must  have  got  under  the  load  like  a  plucky  fellow; 
for  the  stock  was  taken,  and  still  the  price  held  up 
fine. 

He  came  in  to  see  me  soon  after.  Fie  was  pretty 
well  het  up  by  this  work  of  supporting  the  market. 
He  wiped  the  sweat  from  his  forehead  as  he  sat  down 
in  my  inner  office.  When  I  saw  him  come  in 
I  was  anxious  first  along.  I  feared  he  had  discovered 
who  it  was  that  had  been  feeding  all  of  that  stock 
to  him.  But  I  was  quickly  put  at  ease.  He  was 
still  friendly  towards  me.  I  saw  that  he  was  not 
of  a  suspicious  turn  of  mind. 

"Well,  Uncle,"  said  he,  as  he  sat  down  (every 
body  called  me  Uncle);  "I've  been  pounded  pretty 
hard  the  last  day  or  two,  as  you  probably  have  seen 
from  the  tape.  But  I  didn't  let  them  break  my  lines. 
Once  or  twice  they  had  me  pretty  near  bushed.  But 
I  pulled  myself  together  each  time.  And  I  think 
I  have  held  my  own." 

"Why,  what  is  it?"  said  I.    "I  haven't  followed 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          193 

Erie  stock  for  the  last  few  days  as  close  as  I  do 
sometimes.  I've  been  busy  with  other  matters. 
Anything  special  turned  up  ?" 

"Why,  no,"  said  he;  "that  is,  nothing  disastrous; 
because  I  was  able  to  take  care  of  it.  But  some 
good-sized  blocks  of  Erie  have  been  coming  onto 
the  market  the  last  two  days.  In  fact,  the  market 
developed  softness  several  days  ago.  At  that  time 
a  whole  lot  of  small  offerings  came  in,  brought  out, 
I  supposed,  by  the  tempting  prices  at  which  the  stock 
now  stands.  These  lots  didn't  trouble  me  much. 
But  the  blocks  which  have  been  coming  in  the  last 
two  days  have  given  me  lots  of  bother.  I  took  care 
of  them.  But  it  has  cost  me  a  pretty  penny.  I  saw 
that  it  wouldn't  do  to  fall  down  now,  when  we  must 
have  absorbed  pretty  near  the  whole  floating  supply 
of  the  stock,  and  have  got  the  thing  pretty  near  where 
we  want  it.  I  have  accepted  every  share  that  was 
offered.  But  it  has  drained  me  dry  to  do  it.  I  find 
I  will  have  to  call  on  you  for  that  help  which  you 
promised.  I  was  hoping  at  one  time  that  I  wouldn't 
need  to.  But  I  now  see  that  I  will,  and  have  come 
to  ask  for  it." 

I  had  expected  this  call  from  Parker.  I  had  been 
sort  of  dreading  it.  I  knew  he  would  be  miffed 
when  I  told  him  what  I  would  have  to  tell.  I  never 
did  like  a  scene.  In  fact,  I  didn't  know  but  what 
he  might  even  get  mad  and  try  to  do  something  rash. 

"I'm  sorry,  my  son,"  said  I,  when  he  had  finished 


i94          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

his  speech.  "But  I  don't  know  as  I  can  let  you 
have  that  moaey,  after  all." 

He  looked  up  at  me  with  a  start,  like  a  colt  when 
it's  suddenly  frightened.  I  was  glad  that  I  had  a 
clerk  just  outside  the  door  of  my  private  office, 
within  easy  reach  if  I  should  need  him;  because 
you  never  can  tell  what  these  Westerners  will  do 
when  they  get  excited. 

"What's  that  ?"  said  he.  "I  don't  believe  I  under 
stood  you." 

"Why,  it's  just  as  I  said,"  I  replied.  "I  find  that 
I'm  not  able  to  let  you  have  that  money."  I  saw 
that  it  was  best  to  have  the  thing  over  quickly.  Bad 
news  to  a  man  is  like  pulling  a  tooth.  If  you  fool 
around  with  the  forceps  sort  of  tender-like,  it  will 
make  it  all  the  harder.  The  kindest  course  is  to 
be  stern-hearted  just  for  a  minute;  yank  the  tooth 
out,  then  it's  all  over.  That's  what  I  did  now.  I 
handled  him  without  mittens.  I  plumped  the 
announcement  out  at  him  in  straightforward  fashion : 
"Couldn't  possibly  do  it.  My  money  is  tied  up 
just  now  tight  as  a  fiddle-string." 

"  But,"  said  he,  and  his  voice  got  very  low  and 
quiet,  "  Mr.  Drew,  you  promised." 

"Tut,  tut,"  said  I;  "just  a  mere  word  thrown  out 
in  casual  talk.  I  didn't  intend  it  to  be  in  the  nature 
of  a  hard  and  fast  agreement.  There  wasn't  any 
thing  put  down  in  writing." 

"I  know  that,"  said  he;    "but  between  men,  a 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          195 

gentlemen's  agreement  is  even  more  binding  than 
documents  plastered  over  with  seals  and  a  notary's 
stamp." 

"Well/*  said  I,  "you'll  have  to  excuse  me  from 
going  into  a  discussion  of  the  matter  with  you.  I 
haven't  the  time  just  now.  I  have  some  important 
business  on  hand  that  I've  got  to  see  to."  And  I 
arose,  to  bring  the  interview  to  an  end  — I  never 
believe  in  handling  a  nettle  tenderly.  I  didn't 
want  to  get  into  an  argument  with  him.  Didn't  know 
what  he  might  do  if  he  got  worked  up.  Hot-headed 
fellows  sometimes  get  very  sudden  if  they  are  het  up 
by  an  argument.  "I'm  sorry,  my  son,  if  you  are 
disappointed.  It's  unavoidable.  I  can't  help  you 
with  any  money.  I  shall  have  to  bid  you  good 
morning." 

He  bit  his  lip.  His  face  turned  white  all  of  a 
sudden.  "Of  course,  Mr.  Drew,"  said  he,  "you'll 
give  me  a  chance  to  say  this:  That  I  am  by  this 
act  of  yours  a  ruined  man !  The  earnings  of  a  life 
time  have  been  swept  away!  Unless  you  keep  your 
promise,  I  and  my  family  are  at  this  moment  reduced 
to  beggary!  Do  I  understand  that  your  answer  is 
final?" 

"It's  final,"  said  I;  "if  you've  lost  any  money, 
go  and  begin  earning  it  back.  Every  time  a  sheep 
bleats  it  loses  a  mouthful."  (This  hope  I  held  out 
to  him  was  of  course  a  rather  small  plaster  for  a 
big  sore.  But  it  was  the  best  I  could  dp.) 


196          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

I  started  at  once  to  the  door  to  let  him  out.  I 
could  see  that  he  was  bothered  considerable.  For  he 
sort  of  staggered  as  he  walked  across  the  floor. 
And  his  eyes  glazed  over,  something  like  a  steer 
just  after  he  has  been  hit.  He  didn't  say  good-bye. 
He  stumbled  out  through  the  office  door  and  went 
away. 

I  was  glad  when  the  interview  was  over.  I  knew 
that  I'd  have  to  go  through  it;  and  now  was  relieved. 
Parker  took  it  in  a  different  way  from  what  I  had 
looked  for.  Instead  of  flaring  up,  he  took  it  so 
quiet-like  that  I  kind  of  felt  sorry  for  him.  But 
I  wasn't  in  Wall  Street  for  my  health.  If  he  thought 
I  was  going  to  lose  money  in  order  to  help  him,  he 
had  come  to  the  wrong  shop,  that's  all.  Business 
is  business.  When  I  had  told  him  some  days  before 
that  I'd  help  him  out  with  the  money,  I  was  in  a 
different  position  from  what  I  now  was.  For  I 
had  now  disposed  of  most  of  my  Erie  stock.  So 
that  I'd  have  been  a  fool  to  loan  Parker  any  money 
to  keep  the  price  of  the  stock  up.  When  I  have 
sold  out  my  shares  it  isn't  to  my  interest  to  keep 
the  price  up.  It's  to  my  interest  then  to  have  the 
price  of  that  particular  stock  tumble  just  as  fast 
and  as  far  as  it  will.  Because  I  can  then  buy  it 
in  once  more. 

And  that  is  what  happened  in  the  present  case. 
It  wasn't  an  hour  or  two  after  Parker  left  my  office, 
before  Erie  fell  off  several  points.  For  Parker 


THE  BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW          197 

having  now  been  taken  out  of  the  way  (I  guess  the 
Street  hasn't  seen  hide  nor  hair  of  him  since),  was 
no  longer  there  to  support  the  market.  The  price 
fell  rapidly.  The  slump  was  also  helped  by  Secre 
tary  Chase,  who  came  into  Wall  Street  just  now 
and  borrowed  $35,000,000  for  the  Government. 
Erie  dropped  to  ninety-nine.  Thus  I  was  able  to 
buy  back  dog-cheap  the  shares  I'd  sold  at  the  top 
of  the  market.  I  took  a  slice  out  of  Parker  on  this 
deal  which  helped  my  fortune  considerable. 


XXI 


ONE  day,  about  this  time,  I  was  in  my  office 
at  22  William  Street,  when  the  boy  came 
in  and  said  there  was  a  man  in  the  outer 
office  by  the  name  of  Fisk.     "He  wants  to  see  you 
on  a  business  matter." 

"Send  him  in,"  said  I.  I  said  it  to  the  boy  sort 
of  careless-like,  not  expecting  anything  much.  It 
was  a  name  that  didn't  mean  anything  to  me. 
Thought  it  was  some  stranger  coming  to  see  me  on  a 
small  affair  or  other.  I  turned  to  the  stock  ticker 
once  more,  and  to  reading  the  quotations.  The 
door  opened.  A  man  came  in. 

"I'm  Fisk,"  said  he.  He  stepped  up  and  took 
my  hand.  He  was  as  brisk  as  a  bottle  of  ale.  "James 
Fisk,  Junior,  of  New  York  and  Boston.  '  Jim  Fisk/ 
the  boys  call  me,  where  I'm  known.  But  I  suppose 
here  I'll  have  to  put  on  all  the  lugs.  Mr.  Drew,  I 
have  come  to  sell  those  Stonington  shares  of  yours." 

I  got  my  hand  loose  from  his,  and  sat  down.  I 
got  my  breath  after  a  minute.  Not  that  I  was  mad. 
Somehow  or  other,  you  couldn't  get  mad  at  the 
fellow  —  he  had  such  a  hearty  way  about  him.  And 
he  was  so  almighty  sure  of  himself,  he  made  every- 

198 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          199 

body  else  sure  of  him,  too.  He  was  a  big  man, 
heavy-set,  with  blond  hair,  and  a  moustache  the 
colour  of  a  Jersey  cow.  He  wore  a  velvet  vest,  cut 
low,  so  as  to  show  well-nigh  half  of  his  shirt-bosom. 
His  hands  were  fat,  and  had  rings  all  over  them. 
I  could  see  he  was  a  fellow  to  scrape  up  an  acquain 
tance  on  short  notice. 

"And  may  I  ask  who  is  this  Mr.  James  Fisk, 
Junior?'*  I  managed  to  inquire,  after  I  had  got  my 
breath  again.  (I  always  did  have  a  knack  of  being 
very  cold  and  dignified  when  I  wanted  to.) 

"Of  course,  you  can  ask,"  said  he.  "I'll  give 
you  the  whole  pedigree,  if  you  want  it.  I'm  from 
Vermont  —  one  of  your  Green  Mountain  boys.  I 
was  a  peddler  up  there.  Got  to  be  the  Prince  of 
Peddlers.  That's  what  they  called  me.  My  father 
was  a  peddler  before  me.  Everybody  around  Ben- 
nington  knows  my  father.  But  they  know  me  a 
mighty  sight  better.  I  put  my  father  in  the  shade 
before  I'd  been  a  peddler  six  months.  I'm  one  of  the 
go-ahead  sort.  Never  was  cut  out  to  be  a  moss- 
gatherer.  It's  push  with  me  —  all  the  time.  And 
if  you  want  to  entrust  me  with  the  sale  of  this  rail 
road  stock  of  yours,  I'll  prove  it  to  you.  Up  there 
in  Vermont  I  had  hardly  started  out  before  I  had 
a  peddler's  wagon  with  four  horses.  i  Jobber  in 
silks,  shawls,  dress  goods,  jewelry,  silver-ware  and 
Yankee  notions'  -that's  the  way  my  sign  read. 
To  see  me  come  into  a  town,  you'd  have  thought  the 


200         THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

circus  had  arrived.  In  fact,  I  got  the  idea  from  a 
circus  I  used  to  travel  with,  Van  Amberg's  —  that 
was  before  I  became  a  peddler/' 

"What?"  said  I;  "did  you  use  to  travel  with  Van 
Amberg's  Menagerie?" 

"  Well,  I  guess.  I  got  to  be  assistant  doorkeeper  in 
that  shebang.  Ever  hear  of  it  ?" 

"Ever  hear  of  it?"  said  I.  "Why,  old  Ike  Van 
Amberg  started  that  show  of  his  from  my  part  of 
the  country,  up  in  Putnam  County.  I  know  some 
thing  about  the  menagerie  business  myself." 

"Is  that  so?"  said  he.  "Shake  again,  pardner! 
I  didn't  know  when  I  came  in  here  that  I  was  get 
ting  among  my  own  kith  and  kin." 

"Why,  yes,"  said  I;  "I  was  in  the  circus  business 
before  you  was  born.  Came  near  being  in  it  yet, 
for  that  matter." 

"I  want  to  know!"  said  he.  "Say,  did  you  have 
the  wild  mule,  same's  they  do  now,  for  the  farmer 
boys  to  ride  'once  around  the  ring  for  five  dollars'  ?" 

"No,"  said  I.  "We  hadn't  thought  of  that  back 
in  my  time." 

"Then  you  don't  know  what  fun  it  is,"  said  he. 
"Lord,  it  used  to  split  my  sides  with  laughing!  In 
our  show  we  had  a  mule  picked  up  somewhere  in 
our  travels.  Picked  him  up  for  a  song,  for  that 
matter.  He  was  so  wild,  the  farmer  we  bought  him 
of  couldn't  do  anything  with  him.  But  we  broke 
him.  That  is,  we  broke  him  enough  for  one  of  the 


THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         201 

clowns  to  ride,  provided  he  backed  him  in  the  right 
way,  and  sat  just  right  all  the  time.  But  as  for  any 
body  else  —  might  as  well  have  tried  to  ride  a 
cyclone.  At  every  performance  we  would  take  that 
mule,  lead  him  into  the  centre  of  the  ring,  and  then 

'Whoa  there,  January!  Offer  five  dollars  to 
any  person  in  the  audience  who  will  step  down  and 
ride  this  mule  once  around  the  track!'  You'd  have 
hurt  yourself  laughing,  to  see  the  country  clod 
hoppers  try  to  earn  that  five.  Sometimes,  if  the 
farm  hand  was  uncommonly  clever,  he  would  man 
age  to  get  on  top  of  the  beast  and  actually  ride  a 
few  paces.  Then  the  fireworks  would  begin.  The 
show  has  got  the  five  dollars  yet  —  So  you  worked 

under  canvas,  too  ?" 

"No,  not  exactly  under  canvas,"  said  I.  " Truth 
is,  back  in  the  early  days,  the  menagerie  didn't  have 
any  tent.  All  they  had  was  a  lot  of  six-foot  poles 
which  they  stuck  up  in  the  ground,  and  stretched 
canvas  around  them,  leaving  the  top  unroofed." 
And  I  went  on  to  tell  of  circus  life  back  in  my  day. 

This  sort  of  broke  the  ice.  We  got  talking  about 
old  menagerie  days.  Before  I  knew  it  we  were  good 
friends.  Fisk  told  me  that  after  he'd  got  into  the 
peddler  business,  he  pushed  it  so  hard  that  before 
long  he  had  several  wagons  out.  They  would  all 
meet  in  a  town,  pitch  their  camp  and  have  half  the 
population  around  them  inside  of  an  hour.  In 
fact,  he  did  so  well,  bought  dry  goods  in  such  quan- 


202         THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

tides,  that  the  house  in  Boston  which  supplied  him, 
Jordan,  Marsh  &  Co.,  began  to  notice  him,  and 
before  long  gave  him  a  job  as  travelling  salesman. 
No  sooner  had  he  moved  to  Boston  than  he  got 
acquainted  with  a  woman  there,  who  was  influential 
with  some  of  the  Massachusetts  politicians  in  Wash 
ington  (Jimmy  always  did  have  a  way  of  getting 
around  women).  The  house  he  worked  for  had  a 
lot  of  blankets  they  couldn't  get  rid  of.  Fisk  said 
he  would  do  the  trick.  So  he  got  this  woman  to 
give  him  letters  of  introduction  to  one  or  two  big 
men  from  Massachusetts  in  Washington.  He  went 
down  there  —  it  was  just  when  the  War  was  getting 
under  way  —  kept  open  house  for  a  few  days,  got 
some  Congressmen  in  with  him,  and  sold  the  whole 
batch  of  blankets  to  the  United  States  Government 
at  a  high  figure.  He  persuaded  Uncle  Sam  that 
they  were  just  the  thing  for  the  soldier  boys. 

Fisk,  also,  it  seems,  made  some  money  on  the  side 
while  he  was  in  Washington,  smuggling  cotton 
through  the  Union  lines.  The  blockade  on  the 
Southern  ports  had  by  this  time  got  so  tight  that 
cotton  was  bringing  war  prices.  "Nothing  like 
knowing  an  opportunity  when  you  see  it,"  said  Fisk, 
in  telling  me  this  part  of  his  life.  "There  down 
South  was  cotton  stacked  up  in  great  piles  —  per 
fectly  useless  and  waiting  for  a  chance  to  get  to  mar 
ket.  On  the  other  side  was  the  North,  hungry  for 
cotton.  Says  I  to  myself:  'Jim  Fisk,  Junior,  you 


THE  BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW         203 

are  to  be  the  middle-man  between  these  two  needs/ 
So  I  set  to  work.  I  got  the  cotton  through." 

"How  did  you  do  it  ?"  said  I. 

"I'm  not  telling,"  said  he;  "but  I  got  it  through. 
This  war  is  a  great  thing  for  business,  anyway," 
said  he;  "don't  you  think  so  ?" 

I  said  that  depended. 

"Of  course,"  said  he;  "I  mean  for  business  of  the 
right  kind.  You  stock-market  riggers  here  are  bag 
ging  money  hand  over  fist.  If  the  War  lasts  long 
enough,  you  won't  have  vaults  big  enough  to  store 
away  your  coin.  I  always  did  think,  anyhow,  that 
John  Brown  was  a  bully  fellow,  for  starting  this  war. 
Tell  you  what,  Drew,  those  soldier  boys  in  blue  are 
our  best  friends.  'Tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  the  boys 
are  marching/  and  you  Wall  Streeters  rake  in  the 
shekels." 

I  answered  that  I  thought  Uncle  Sam's  soldier 
boys  were  indeed  earning  their  wages.  And  although 
it  would  cost  an  almighty  big  sum  in  taxes  to  pay  the 
bills  when  the  War  was  over,  still,  take  it  all  in  all, 
perhaps  it  was  money  well  spent.  For  it  certainly 
was  making  good  times  in  Wall  Street. 

Well,  Fisk's  success  in  selling  the  blankets  to 
Uncle  Sam  gave  him  a  handle  over  Jordan,  Marsh 
&  Co.  He  went  back  to  them  while  the  sale  was 
still  hanging  fire,  and  said:  "I've  got  the  contract. 
Now  I  want  you  to  take  me  into  the  firm." 

They  didn't  appear  very  anxious.     But  Fisk  said 


204         THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

he  had  some  of  the  contracts  signed  in  his  own 
name,  and  unless  they  took  him  in,  they  couldn't 
have  the  orders.  So  they  had  to  give  in.  He 
became  one  of  the  "Co."  of  the  firm. 

"But,"  continued  Fisk,  "our  partnership  didn't 
just  turn  out  very  scrumptious.  Those  Boston 
merchants  are  so  all-fired  respectable.  They  are 
too  conservative.  They  think  the  good  name  of  the 
house  with  smaller  profits  is  worth  more  than  a 
smaller  name  with  bigger  profits.  We  didn't  hit 
it  off  well  together,  and  the  upshot  was,  they 
very  soon  asked  me  to  leave.  I  did  —  for  a  remu 
neration.  They  paid  me  sixty  thousand  dollars  to 
get  out.  I  started  in  the  dry-goods  business  myself, 
at  the  corner  of  Summer  and  Chauncey  Streets, 
Boston.  But  it  didn't  go.  Came  to  New  York 
with  what  money  I  had  left.  I  started  in  as  a  Wall 
Street  operator.  Result,  lost  every  cent  I  had. 
This  was  a  year  ago.  Had  a  silver  watch  —  nary 
another  thing.  I  was  as  flat  as  a  nigger's  nose. 
Am  yet,  for  that  matter.  But  I'm  going  to  be  a 
rich  man  yet.  They  can't  keep  me  down.  And  I 
have  come  to  you,  Uncle,  with  this  Stonington 
proposition.  It  will  help  make  you  richer,  and 
it'll  bring  something  to  Jim  Fisk,  too." 

I  asked  him  how  he  proposed  to  go  about  the 
deal. 

"I'll  tell  you,"  said  he.  "I  learned  that  there 
is  a  Boston  crowd  that  would  like  to  buy  out  your 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         205 

interest  in  the  Stonington  Railroad.  I  have  found 
out  who  they  are.  Give  me  the  business.  Let  me 
handle  it  for  you.  I'll  go  down  there  and  sell  one 
or  all  of  your  shares  of  that  road,  in  a  way  that  will 
make  your  eyes  open." 

We  talked  it  over  this  way  and  that.  The  visit 
ended  by  my  naming  a  figure  at  which  I'd  let  the 
stock  go.  He  went  out.  In  a  few  days  back  he 
came  —  had  the  papers  all  made  out,  bill  of  sale, 
contracts,  blank  receipts  —  everything.  I  turned 
over  the  stock  to  his  Boston  people.  They  paid 
the  money.  I  got  the  cash.  Fisk  made  a  nice  little 
amount  as  his  commission. 

This  is  the  way  Fisk  and  I  got  acquainted.  He 
handled  this  sale  of  Stonington  stock  so  knowing,  I 
saw  he  was  a  gumptious  fellow.  I  said  to  him  that 
if  he  wanted  to  start  in  again  as  a  stock  broker,  I'd 
help  him  along  -  -  would  turn  a  good  share  of  my 
business  in  his  direction.  He  jumped  at  it.  So 
the  firm  of  Fisk  and  Belden  was  formed.  Belden 
was  the  partner  that  I  put  in  with  Fisk,  in  order  to 
accommodate  his  father,  Henry  Beiden,  an  old  friend 
of  mine.  Brother  Belden's  preaching  and  testi 
monies  at  the  camp-meeting  grounds  outside  the 
village  of  Sing  Sing  were,  before  he  got  the  paralytic 
stroke,  full  of  power  and  of  the  witness  of  the  spirit. 
He  was  a  camp-meeting  shouter,  old  Brother  Henry. 
To  hear  his  "Glory  Hallelujahs"  in  a  love  feast 
would  have  done  your  heart  good.  When  I  can 


206         THE  BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

do  a  good  turn  to  a  man  such  as  that,  I  feel  like 
doing  it.  So  I  gave  his  son,  young  Belden,  a  chance. 
Very  soon  I  was  using  this  firm  of  Fisk  &  Belden 
for  most  of  my  important  deals.  A  big  operator's 
business  has  to  be  done  on  the  quiet.  The  relation 
ship  between  a  Wall  Street  operator  and  his  broker 
is  a  close  one.  In  order  to  manipulate  the  market, 
you  must  keep  mum  while  you  are  doing  it.  The 
broker  is  the  only  one  besides  yourself  who  knows 
what  you're  doing.  He  is  in  a  position  to  give  you 
away  if  he  wants  to.  So  I  was  glad  to  have  a 
brokerage  house  that  I  could  be  confidential  with. 
Pretty  soon  Fisk  and  I  were  in  a  lot  of  deals  together, 
and  in  Erie  most  of  all. 


XXII 

THE  Erie  war  was  now  about  to  open.  It 
was  the  biggest  fight  I  was  ever  in.  So 
I  was  glad  I  had  got  an  able  helper  like 
Jim  Fisk;  for  I  was  going  to  need  partners  now  as 
never  before. 

It  was  a  fight,  as  anybody  might  know,  between 
Vanderbilt  and  me.  Pretty  much  all  our  lives  we 
have  been  fighting  each  other.  When  he  had  a 
good  thing,  it  always  kind  of  seemed  as  though  I 
wanted  it,  too;  and  when  I  had  a  good  thing,  he 
never  slept  easy  till  he  had  a  finger  in  it.  That 
had  been  the  case  with  steamboats,  and  it  was  now 
to  be  the  case,  also,  with  the  Erie  Railroad. 

Vanderbilt's  make-up  and  mine  were  different. 
I  suppose  that  accounts  for  our  everlastingly  cross 
ing  horns.  His  way  was  to  break  down  opposition, 
by  rushing  straight  through  it;  my  way  was  to  go 
around  it.  He  was  the  dog,  I  the  cat.  A  cat  believes 
in  going  soft-footed  —  in  keeping  its  claws  hid  till 
the  time  comes  to  show  them.  A  dog  goes  with  a 
big  bow-wow;  my  plan  has  always  been  to  go  at  a 
thing  quieter.  A  cat  won't  spring  at  a  dog  from 
in  front  -  -  'tisn't  good  tactics.  She  gets  around  on 

207 


208         THE  BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

the  flank,  claws  the  dog  from  behind,  and  so  does  a 
lot  of  damage  without  being  in  any  danger  herself. 

The  Commodore  was  a  lordly  fellow.  He  used  to 
drive  a  team  of  horses,  and  would  go  riding  up  Fifth 
Avenue  as  though  he  owned  both  sides  of  it.  His 
house  was  down  on  Washington  Square  among  the 
silk-stockings.  In  winter  he  would  wear  a  fur- 
lined  coat  and  a  stove-pipe  hat;  was  very  proud  of 
his  person.  As  for  me,  I  was  never  a  hand  for  vain 
glory.  Top-boots,  such  as  I  used  to  wear  in  drover 
days,  have  always  been  good  enough  for  me.  And 
I  never  could  see  the  use  of  paying  expensive  prices 
to  a  tailor  when  you  can  get  a  suit  ready-made  for 
less  than  half  the  sum.  As  for  cutting  a  wide  swath, 
I  never  did  take  to  it.  My  turn-out  of  one  horse  and 
a  doctor's  gig  was  good  enough  for  me.  When  the 
Broadway  stages  started  in,  they  were  cheaper  yet; 
so  I  used  them. 

Some  of  my  friends  used  to  scold  me  because  I 
didn't  dress  up.  They'd  say:  "Uncle  Dan,  why 
on  earth  do  you  walk  around  with  such  an  old  stick 
as  that  for  a  cane?"  But  I  told  them  I  wasn't 
proud.  That  stick  had  once  been  the  handle  of  an 
almighty  good  umbrella.  And  now  that  the  umbrella 
part  was  of  no  use  any  more,  I  felt  it  would  be  a 
shame  to  throw  away  the  stick;  because  the  stick 
was  in  just  as  good  a  condition  as  when  I  had  bought 
the  umbrella  years  before. 

Another  difference  between  the  Commodore  and 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          209 

me  was  that  he  was  by  make-up  a  Bullish  fellow, 
whereas  most  of  my  life  I  have  been  on  the  Bear 
side  of  the  market.  It  used  to  be  one  of  his  mottoes : 
"  Never  sell  short."  Even  in  the  darkest  hours  of  the 
Civil  War,  he  had  lots  of  faith  in  the  future  of  the 
country.  He  seemed  to  think  that  in  America  'most 
any  kind  of  stock  would  go  up  and  be  valuable  if 
he  only  waited  long  enough.  "I  bide  my  time," 
he  used  to  say  to  me,  when  I  would  tell  him  he'd 
better  sell  such  and  such  a  stock  and  get  it  off  his 
hands.  "Get  it  off  my  hands  ?"  he'd  exclaim.  "Not 
by  a  jugful!  I  bought  that  stock  as  an  investment; 
it's  going  to  reach  par  some  day,  and  don't  you  for 
get  it." 

Yes,  he  was  a  natural-born  hoper.  I  have  always 
been  more  conservative  —  have  never  allowed 
myself  to  paint  the  future  in  too  bright  colours. 
The  Commodore  made  most  of  his  money  by  stocks 
going  up.  I  made  most  of  mine  by  stocks  going 
down.  I  wish  now  I'd  been  a  Bull  instead  of  a  Bear. 
Because  a  Bull  makes  money  when  everybody's 
happy,  that  is,  when  stocks  are  on  the  upward  move; 
so  that  people  are  willing  to  see  him  get  rich.  But 
a  Bear  makes  his  money  when  other  people  are 
unhappy.  Because,  in  order  for  him  to  make, 
others  have  got  to  lose;  for  him  to  get  rich  means  that 
there  is  a  line  of  bankrupts  in  his  train;  and  people 
cuss  him  so  for  taking  money  away  from  them,  that  his 
fortune  doesn't  give  him  so  very  much  satisfaction. 


210         THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

Vanderbilt's  faith  in  the  future  of  our  country 
sometimes  led  him  into  reckless  expenditures.  Dur 
ing  the  Civil  War  he  was  willing  to  have  that  con 
flict  come  to  an  end,  even  though  it  was  making 
good  business  for  us  operators  in  Wall  Street;  because 
he  figured  that,  with  the  country  prosperous  once 
more,  he  would  be  prosperous  also.  He  even  gave 
a  million-dollar  boat  outright  to  the  Government, 
for  use  as  a  gun-boat,  to  help  hurry  the  War  to  an 
end.  He  seemed  to  think  the  country's  interests 
and  his  own  were  one  and  the  same  —  a  position 
which  leads  a  fellow  into  all  kinds  of  extravagance. 
It's  all  right  to  love  your  country;  but  a  fellow  ought 
to  love  himself,  too.  I  loaned  some  of  my  Stoning- 
ton  Line  boats  to  the  Government  during  the  War; 
but  I  charged  rent.  In  the  year  '62  alone,  Abe 
Lincoln  paid  me  $350,000  for  the  use  of  the  boats. 
So  I  was  really  sorry  when  the  Civil  War  was  over. 
For  then  an  era  of  prosperity  set  in;  and  prosperity 
isn't  good  for  a  Bear  operator. 

The  Commodore  gave  a  million  dollars  to  Vander- 
bilt  University  —  right  out  of  hand.  He  didn't 
seem  to  have  any  fear  of  losing  his  fortune  and  dying 
poor.  I  have  believed  in  giving  sort  of  cautious-like. 
I  gave  a  quarter-million  as  an  endowment  to  found 
Drew  Theological  Seminary.  But  I  kept  the  prin 
cipal  in  my  own  hands  —  only  paid  over  the  interest 
each  year  —  that  is,  I  paid  the  interest  as  long  as 
I  was  able.  I  have  always  believed  that  a  man 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW         211 

should  be  handier  with  a  rake  than  with  a 
fork. 

Well, the  Erie  fight  was  betweenVanderbilt  and  me. 
I  had  been  the  ruling  spirit  in  Erie  now  for  ten  years, 
and  had  made  so  much  money  out  of  that  road 
that  other  people  got  jealous.  Part  of  those  ten 
years  was  Civil  War  time.  Stocks  were  bobbing  up 
and  down  like  a  boy's  kite.  I  was  on  the  inside 
and  could  take  advantage  of  these  jumps. 

The  Civil  War  was  over;  Vanderbilt  now  vowed 
that  he  would  get  control  of  the  Erie  Road  and  put 
me  and  my  crowd  out  of  business  for  good  and  all. 
He  said  we  were  nothing  but  a  nest  of  gamblers,  that 
we  were  unsettling  the  entire  market  by  our  specki- 
lations,  and  that  he  wouldn't  feel  safe  for  his  other 
properties  until  the  Erie  Railroad  had  also  been 
placed  in  what  he  called  safe  hands.  So  he  set  out 
to  buy  a  controlling  interest  in  the  stock. 

I  guess  what  made  him  so  mad  was  a  "Convert 
ible  Bond"  scheme  that  I  worked  about  this  time. 
The  Erie  Road  wanted  three  million  dollars  to  make 
some  improvements.  I  loaned  her  the  money,  and 
took  as  security  for  the  loan  three  million  dollars 
of  bonds  which  were  convertible  into  stock;  and  also 
twenty-eight  thousand  shares  of  unissued  stock 
which  the  road  just  then  had  on  hand.  This  pro 
vided  me  in  all  with  fifty-eight  thousand  shares  of 
stock.  Thus  fortified  —  and  when  the  Street  didn't 
know  that  I  held  these  shares  —  I  went  onto  the 


212         THE   BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW 

Exchange  and  sold  Erie  heavily  short.  Erie  was 
then  at  95,  and  promised  to  go  still  higher.  People 
reckoned  that  I  was  a  reckless  plunger.  The  weeks 
ran  along.  Pretty  soon  it  came  time  for  me  to 
deliver.  The  price  held  strong  at  95.  My  enemies 
began  to  snicker.  They  said  I  was  cornered.  But 
I  took  the  twenty-eight  thousand  shares  I  had  kept 
up  my  sleeve,  and  dumped  them  into  the  market 
all  to  once.  It  was  probably  the  biggest  surprise 
Wall  Street  up  to  that  time  had  known.  Prices  were 
knocked  into  a  cocked  hat.  Erie  gave  one  plunge 
-  fell  to  47.  Which  means,  I  made  the  other  fel 
lows  pay  me  $95  a  share  for  stock  which  was  cost 
ing  me  now  only  $47.  So  I  cleaned  up  $48  on 
every  share  dealt  in.  It  was  the  finest  scoop  I  had 
ever  made.  It  is  true,  those  58,000  shares  had 
been  intrusted  to  me  only  to  hold  as  security  until 
the  road  should  pay  back  my  loan.  But  in  a  busi 
ness  deal,  you  can't  stop  for  every  little  technicality. 
Vanderbilt  said  that  sort  of  thing  had  to  stop. 
And  he  was  going  to  be  the  one  to  stop  it.  So  he 
started  in.  He  didn't  try  to  conceal  his  moves.  He 
let  everybody  know.  He  went  out  in  the  open  mar 
ket  and  made  his  bids.  He  said  that  the  Erie  Road, 
in  spite  of  all  the  dirty  water  —  as  he  called  it  - 
in  its  stock,  could  be  made  once  more  into  a  divi 
dend-earning  property;  and  that  it  would  be  worth 
money  to  him  and  to  the  public  generally  to  make 
it  into  a  good  road  once  more.  At  least  he  was 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         213 

willing  to  put  his  fortune  into  the  attempt.  So  he 
gave  his  brokers  unlimited  orders.  "Buy  Erie," 
was  what  he  told  them.  "  Buy  it  at  the  lowest  figure 
you  can;  but  buy  it!"  And  he  swore  an  awful  oath 
that  the  moment  he  got  control  of  the  road,  there 
would  be  such  a  cleaning  out  of  the  Erie  stable  as 
it  hadn't  known  for  years. 

One  of  his  first  moves  was  to  get  in  with  a  Boston 
set  that  owned  a  large  block  of  the  stock  —  the 
"  Boston,  Hartford  and  Erie"  crowd.  Almost  before 
I  knew  it,  he  had  worked  up  this  combination  among 
the  directors,  so  that  I  was  likely  to  be  defeated  for 
reelection  to  the  Erie  Board.  I  went  to  the  Commo 
dore  to  soften  him  down.  I  said  I'd  try  to  do  better 
from  now  on,  if  he'd  let  me  stay  in  the  Board. 
Besides,  he  needed  me,  even  though  maybe  I 
wasn't  just  the  kind  of  an  Erie  manager  that  he'd 
like  to  have.  He  thought  I  was  a  selfish  director; 
but  there  was  a  set  of  men  now  getting  in  who  were 
really  and  wilfully  thievish. 

uYou  think  I'm  a  director  wTho  is  working  only 
for  my  own  pocket,"  said  I.  "Well,  I'll  promise 
from  now  on  to  work  for  the  interests  of  the  road. 
But  there  is  a  set  of  bad  men  now  getting  in,  who 
are  unregenerate.  Commodore,  you  can't  fight 
them  alone.  What  you  need  is  a  partner  who 
is  on  the  inside,  and  who  can,  therefore,  fight  those 
fellows  for  you  better  than  you  can  do  it  your 
self." 


2i4         THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

"Yes,"  said  he,  "but  where  in  time  could  I  find 
such  a  man  ?" 

"I'm  the  one,"  and  I  spoke  up  good  and  prompt. 

He  laughed  a  great  big  laugh.  (Vanderbilt  had 
a  hearty  way  of  laughing,  as  though  he  wasn't  afraid 
of  anything  or  anybody.  He  used  to  poke  fun  at 
me  —  on  the  occasions  when  he  and  I  were  on  good 
terms  —  because  I  didn't  laugh  a  good  loud  laugh 
like  he  did.  "Why  in  thunder,  Dan,  don't  you 
laugh  when  you  set  out  to  do  it,"  he  used  to  say, 
"  and  quit  that  hen  cackle  of  yours,  which  is  no  nearer 
a  real  laugh  than  one  of  my  old  Staten  Island  peri- 
augers  would  be  to  a  modern  paddle-wheel  boat?") 
He  gave  one  of  those  laughs  of  his  now. 

"That  would  be  a  bully  good  idea!"  he  said. 
"You  are  just  the  fellow  to  take  in  as  confidential 
friend  and  partner.  Drew,  you're  as  crooked  as  a 
worm  fence.  You'd  betray  me  inside  of  twenty- 
four  hours." 

"I  wouldn't  betray  you  at  all,"  said  I.  "I  guess 
I  haven't  forgotten  the  time  when  we  used  to  be 
friends  together  in  the  old  steamboat  days.  Why, 
back  there  in  that  Waterwitch  affair 

"Yes,  yes,"  said  he.  "I  remember  old  steam 
boat  days.  We  have  known  each  other  quite  a 
while,  haven't  we  ?  I  don't  know  but  what  I  might 
give  you  one  more  trial."  He  thought  for  a  spell. 
"Do  you  really  think,  Dan,  if  I  took  you  back,  that 
you  could  play  fair  ?" 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         215 

"I  don't  believe  anything  about  it,"  said  I.  "I 
know  I  could.  And  I'm  in  a  position  to  do  you  a 
whole  lot  of  help." 

"I  declare,  I  believe  I'll  try  it,"  said  he.  "But 
wait.  I  gave  my  promise  to  put  you  out.  The 
Boston  crowd  wants  to  get  rid  of  you.  And  I  told 
them  that  at  this  next  annual  meeting  I'd  see  to  it 
that  you  were  not  re-elected." 

"Yes,"  said  I;  "but  you  can  tell  them  you  have 
changed  your  mind." 

"That  isn't  the  way  I  do  things,"  said  he.  "A 
promise  is  a  promise." 

"Well,  if  that  is  the  way  you  feel,"  I  answered, 
"  why  not  work  it  this  way  ?  We'll  go  ahead  and  hold 
the  election.  I  will  be  left  out.  We'll  put  a 
dummy  in  the  place  instead  of  me.  Thus  you'll  be 
keeping  your  promise  with  the  Boston  crowd.  Then, 
after  the  election  is  over,  the  dummy  can  resign  and 
I  will  be  appointed  in  his  place." 

'That's  certainly  a  fruitful  noddle  you've  got 
there,  Uncle,"  said  the  Commodore.  "I  don't  just 
take  to  that  way  of  getting  out  of  the  difficulty. 
But  maybe  it's  as  good  as  any.  We'll  call  it 
settled." 

The  election  was  held.  My  name  didn't  appear 
in  the  list  of  those  reflected  to  the  Board.  It  looked 
as  though  I  was  out  of  Erie  for  good  and  all.  But 
the  next  day  the  dummy  resigned  —  said  that  on  fur 
ther  thought  he  was  not  able  to  take  it  and  would 


216         THE   BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

have  to  be  relieved.  We  relieved  him.  I  stepped 
into  his  shoes.  I  was  back  into  my  old  place. 

Now,  I  was  ready  for  work.  I  started  in.  There 
was  no  time  to  be  lost.  Vanderbilt  would  soon  have 
complete  control  of  Erie  unless  I  blocked  him. 
Already  I  had  Fisk  with  me  as  a  partner.  I  needed 
another  man.  This  other  man  I  found  in  Jay 
Gould. 

Jay  had  been  worming  his  way  inside  of  Erie  for 
some  time  back.  He  had  given  up  writing  his 
tories  —  had  also  sold  his  tannery  business  out  in 
Pennsylvania.  He  had  come  to  New  York  with  a 
patent  rat-trap  to  sell.  Then  he  got  into  the  Street. 
First  along  he  dealt  in  small  railroads.  But  when 
he  saw  what  a  bag  of  money  I  was  making  out  of 
Erie  he  began  to  invest  in  its  stock.  He  got  in  with 
some  of  the  stock-holders,  and  by  now  had  become 
a  director  himself  and  one  of  the  powers  in  the  road. 
I  took  him  now  as  a  partner.  He  was  at  the  head 
of  a  clique  in  the  Board  of  Directors  that  I  needed 
in  my  fight  against  Vanderbilt.  So  he  and  Jim 
Fisk  and  I  now  stood  together  like  three  blood- 
brothers  against  the  Commodore,  our  common  foe. 

Gould  was  just  the  criss-cross  of  Fisk.  He  was 
an  undersized  chap,  and  quiet  as  a  mouse.  I  never 
liked  his  face.  It  was  dark,  and  covered  all  over 
with  whiskers  so  you  could  hardly  see  him.  As  to 
Fisk,  you  couldn't  help  but  like  him.  Jimmy  did 
me  one  or  two  dirty  deals  before  he  died.  However, 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         217 

I  could  take  it  from  him,  he  was  that  big  and  warm 
hearted  in  it  all.  But  Jay  was  so  almighty  silent. 
And  he  wasn't  a  healthy  man,  either.  He  was  as 
lean  as  a  parson's  barn.  Never  seemed  to  me  that 
he  ate  enough.  Jimmy  used  to  put  his  purse  into 
his  belly.  Jay  put  his  belly  into  his  purse.  So  that, 
though  he  himself  was  thin,  his  purse  was  fat  as  a 
porker.  Jimmy  used  to  say: 

'The  difference  between  Jay  and  me  is,  I  have 
more  trouble  to  get  my  dinner  than  to  digest  it,  and 
Jay  has  more  trouble  to  digest  it  than  to  get  it." 

As  I  said,  I  couldn't  help  but  like  Fisk,  no  matter 
how  wicked  a  man  he  was;  and  he  was  wicked.  He 
was  very  carnal.  The  way  he  used  to  carry  on  with 
women  was  something  scandalous.  He  used  to 
bring  them  right  down  to  the  office.  Didn't  make 
any  bones  about  it.  He  would  drive  down  in  a 
barouche  with  a  darkey  coachman  and  four  horses, 
and  have  two  or  three  ladies  of  pleasure  in  the  car 
riage  with  him.  Sometimes  we  would  be  in  the 
middle  of  a  hard  day's  work.  A  carriage  would 
drive  up;  a  couple  of  ballet  dancers  would  get  out, 
bounce  into  the  office  where  we  were,  trip  up  to  Fisk 
and  say,  "Hello,  we've  come  to  spend  the  day." 

I'd  look  up  as  much  as  to  say:  "You're  going 
to  put  them  out,  aren't  you  ?" 

But  he  would  answer  my  look  and  say:  "Uncle, 
I've  got  a  previous  engagement  with  my  Sweet-lips 
here,  and  this  railroad  matter  will  have  to  wait  over 


2i8         THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL.  DREW 

until  to-morrow.  And  this  other  female  charmer 
here  —  Mr.  Drew,  allow  me  to  make  you  acquainted 
with  the  prima  donna  of  "Mazeppa"  and  "The 
French  Spy."  Then  he  would  send  out  for  a  res 
taurant  man,  have  victuals  brought  in,  and  would 
serve  up  a  banquet  to  his  ballet  dancers  right  in  his 
private  office.  He  wouldn't  care  what  the  expense 
was;  and  he  didn't  mind  whether  he  had  known  the 
girls  before  or  not.  Sometimes  they  would  bring 
in  another  girl,  one  he  had  never  met,  and  say: 

"  We've  brought  Annie  along.  You  must  meet  her. 
They  all  say  she's  the  sassiest  queen  in  town." 

'*  That's  fine,"  he  would  answer;  "  and  she's  a  lu-lu, 
too;  she  shall  enjoy  the  carousal  with  us.  The  more 
the  merrier.  The  world  can  never  have  too  many 
girls  of  the  kind  that  are  toyful  and  cuddlesome." 

I  used  to  scold  Jimmy  for  these  wenching  bouts  of 
his;  but  my  scoldings  didn't  count  for  much. 

"That's  all  right,  Uncle,"  he'd  answer.  "You're 
old  and  dried  up.  There's  no  fire  in  your  veins. 
But  for  a  gay  young  buck  like  me,  a  little  spice  in 
the  midst  of  a  hard  day's  work  is  needed.  I  never 
was  one  of  your  Josephs  — woman-proof." 

So  I  didn't  have  much  peace  of  soul  with  either 
of  these  partners  of  mine.  Gould,  quiet  as  a  clam; 
and  Fisk,  the  devil's  own.  But  both  of  them  were 
handy  in  a  stock-market  dicker;  and  that  was  what 
I  needed  just  now.  The  Erie  war  was  rapidly  com 
ing  on.  I  had  to  have  partners  that  could  help. 


XXIII 

WHEN  you  set  out  to  ride  a  colt,  see  that 
your   saddle    is    girt    good    and    tight. 
That's  what  I  did  now.     I  didn't  want 
to  tackle  the  Commodore  before  I  had  first  made 
good  and  ready.     This  is  the  way  I  set  about  it: 

At  one  of  the  meetings  of  the  Erie  Board  of  Direc 
tors  I  got  the  matter  of  steel  rails  to  take  the  place 
of  the  old  and  unsafe  iron  rails  acted  upon  by  the 
Board.  Our  road,  further,  was  being  hurt  because 
it  had  a  six-foot  track,  whilst  the  other  railroads 
were  being  built  with  only  a  narrow,  that  is,  the 
present  standard-gauge,  track.  Their  cars  couldn't 
go  on  our  road,  nor  ours  on  their  road.  It  had  been 
proposed  that  the  Erie  lay  a  third  rail  inside  the 
other  two  rails,  in  order  that  narrow-gauge  rolling 
stock  could  run  on  the  track  in  the  same  train,  if 
need  be,  with  our  own  broad-gauge  cars.  This, 
and  the  steel  rails  to  replace  the  iron  ones,  were  two 
such  needed  improvements  that  I  now  made  them  an 
excuse  for  getting  the  road  to  issue  some  new  shares 
of  stock.  By  means  of  my  control  of  the  Executive 
Committee,  I  got  them  to  vote  to  issue  ten  million 
dollars  of  convertible  bonds,  the  proceeds  of  which 

219 


220         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

-  so    they     supposed  —  were     to     go     into     these 
improvements. 

The  advantage  of  convertible  bonds  was  this: 
There  was  a  provision  in  the  charter  forbidding  the 
Erie  Road  to  issue  new  stock  except  at  par  - 
which  wouldn't  have  suited  my  purpose.  Bonds 
would  have  been  equally  useless,  seeing  they  are 
of  no  value  in  stock-exchange  dickers.  Bonds  con 
vertible  into  stock,  however,  were  just  the  thing. 
Because  it  was  only  another  name  for  an  issue  of 
stock  at  the  market  rate. 

So  now  I  had  one  hundred  thousand  shares  of 
stock  at  my  disposal,  whenever  I  should  care  to  turn 
the  trick.  Of  course,  legally  speaking,  these  shares 
were  not  just  at  my  disposal,  either;  because  they 
were  meant  as  a  means  of  raising  money  to  be  put 
into  the  improvements  and  repairs  that  the  road  then 
needed.  But  all's  fair  in  love  and  war.  And  in  this 
particular  case  I  felt  that  I  was  more  in  need  of  this 
nine  or  ten  million  than  the  Erie  Road  was.  The 
road  was  under  my  management,  because  I  con 
trolled  the  Executive  Committee,  and,  therefore, 
the  finances.  I  felt  that  I  was  entitled  to  a  few 
pickings,  as  it  were.  It's  an  ill  cook  that  can't  lick 
his  own  fingers.  So,  instead  of  using  the  money  to 
buy  steel  rails,  I  had  the  old  iron  rails  turned,  in 
order  to  bring  the  unworn  outside  edge  onto  the 
inside  now.  Of  course,  this  wasn't  altogether  as 
safe  as  new  steel  rails  would  have  been.  But  I 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          221 

needed  in  my  stock-market  operations  the  money 
which  this  new  bond  issue  was  raising.  And  inas 
much  as  I  had  put  in  a  good  deal  of  valuable  time 
as  treasurer  of  the  Erie  Railroad,  I  felt  I  had  a  right 
now  to  sluice  off  some  of  her  revenues  into  my  own 
pocket.  When  you  own  a  cow,  you  own  her  milk 
also.  As  to  legal  objections,  by  getting  one  of  the 
judges  on  my  side  -  -  as  will  be  seen  later  —  we 
got  the  law  courts  so  jummixed  up  that  they  didn't 
know  where  they  stood;  and  so  the  law  couldn't 
touch  me. 

Whilst  in  the  midst  of  these  busy  preparations, 
I  had  to  cease  operations  for  a  couple  of  days  and 
go  out  to  the  formal  opening  of  my  theological  sem 
inary  at  Madison,  N.  J.  It  was  an  occasion  of  great 
spiritual  refreshment,  and  I'll  write  about  it  later. 
Just  now  I  must  finish  telling  about  this  Erie  Rail 
road  affair. 

Supplied  with  ammunition  in  the  shape  of  this 
fine,  big  issue  of  stock,  I  was  now  prepared  for  war. 
And  I  wasn't  a  moment  too  soon,  either.  Vander- 
bilt  was  already  at  work.  He  was  out  in  the  open 
market  buying  Erie  with  the  boldness  of  a  lion. 
I  guess  he  was  figuring  that  I  was  on  his  side,  or  he 
might  never  have  been  so  bold  and  confident.  Any 
how,  he  was  going  ahead  as  though  there  was 
nothing  now  that  could  stop  him.  I  didn't  say 
anything.  I  thought  I'd  let  him  go  ahead,  and  sort 
of  take  him  by  surprise  when  the  time  came. 


222         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

Vanderbilt  wanted  to  buy  Erie  shares.  All  right. 
I  was  willing  he  should  buy  all  he  wanted.  In  fact, 
I  thought  I  would  help  him  in  the  matter.  So  I 
went  onto  the  market,  and  sold  Erie  short  in  enor 
mous  quantities. 

My  friends  thought  I  was  going  it  wild.  "What 
in  the  world,  Uncle,  are  you  up  to  ?"  they  said  to  me. 
"Don't  you  remember  those  luckless  Bears  that 
went  short  of  Harlem  and  got  their  feet  caught  in  the 
trap  ?  That's  just  what  you're  doing  now.  The 
Commodore  is  going  to  corner  you  tight  as  a  fly  in  a 
tar-barrel."  But  I  only  smiled. 

The  Commodore  now  learned  that  I  was  against 
him,  and  got  very  much  het  up.  His  crowd 
taunted  me. 

"You're  already  beginning  to  count  your  pro 
fits  ?"  said  I  to  them.  "Don't  boil  the  pap  till  the 
child  is  born,  that's  all."  And  I  went  on  selling  the 
stock  short. 

Vanderbilt  now  made  a  move  which  he  hadn't 
tried  before.  He  went  to  the  law  courts  and  got  out 
an  injunction  forbidding  me  and  my  crowd  to  issue 
any  more  shares  of  Erie  stock.  This  last  was  a 
proceeding  I  was  not  willing  to  stand  for.  As  chief 
director  of  Erie,  I  had  a  right  to  operate  her  as  I 
saw  fit.  But  here  was  Vanderbilt  going  to  the  law 
courts  and  putting  a  higher  power  over  Erie's  affairs 
than  I  was.  He  was  tying  my  hands.  So  I  went 
into  the  law-court  business,  too.  I  called  a  council 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         223 

of  Gould  and  Fisk.  We  decided,  since  Vanderbilt 
had  got  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  on  his  side 
to  issue  injunctions  for  him,  that  we'd  get  a  judge 
too.  So  we  went  out  to  Binghamton,  and  got  a  judge 
there.  Vanderbilt' s  judge  had  enjoined  us  from 
issuing  any  more  Erie  stock.  This  new  judge  of 
ours  now  got  out  an  injunction  commanding  us  to 
issue  more  stock.  He  wasn't  a  New  York  City 
judge.  But  he  had  as  much  power,  so  far  as  his 
legal  standing  was  concerned.  Because  these  Circuit 
Court  judges  work  side  by  side.  Any  one  judge  has 
power  extending  over  the  entire  state.  Ordinarily 
they  are  supposed  to  stand  by  each  other;  but  this 
was  just  after  the  Civil  War,  when  things  were 
topsy-turvy.  Johnson  was  being  impeached.  The 
legal  machinery  of  the  country  was  that  unsettled,  we 
could  do  with  it  'most  anything  we  wanted. 

When  Vanderbilt  had  got  out  his  injunction, 
restraining  us  from  manufacturing  any  new  certifi 
cates  of  Erie  stock,  he  thought  that  he  had  all  the 
leaks  corked  up  at  last  good  and  tight.  He 
supposed,  therefore,  that  in  issuing  orders  to  his 
brokers  to  take  all  the  Erie  that  was  offered,  he 
wasn't  in  any  possible  danger.  I  went  onto  the 
Exchange  as  though  nothing  had  happened,  and 
proceeded  to  sell  more  Erie.  I  sold  all  that  I  could  - 
didn't  set  any  limits  —  agreed  to  deliver  all  the 
stock  I  could  find  buyers  for.  Of  course,  in  the 
Commodore  I  found  a  ready  buyer. 


224         THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

People  now  thought  me  plumb  crazy.  "Uncle 
Daniel  has  gone  clean  off  his  head/'  said  they.  "  It's 
got  to  be  second  nature  with  him  to  sell  stock  short. 
He  goes  onto  the  Bear  side  by  force  of  habit.  In 
this  deal  he  hasn't  any  more  chance  than  a  grass 
hopper  in  January.  The  Commodore  has  got  him 
this  time.  He's  fixed  it  so  that  Drew  and  his  crowd 
can't  manufacture  any  new  stock,  and  he  has  roped 
in  all  the  floating  supply  that  is  still  on  the  market. 
And  yet  here  is  Uncle  Daniel  still  offering  to  deliver 
the  stock  in  unlimited  amounts.  Where's  he  going 
to  get  it  when  these  contracts  mature  ?  Drew  is 
daft.  He's  going  it  blind,  and  will  run  his  head 
against  a  post."  Thus  they  talked.  I  let  them. 
I  was  still  able  to  find  my  way  around  in  a  Wall 
Street  transaction  —  as  they  soon  found  out. 

By  and  by  the  time  drew  near  when  these  short 
contracts  of  mine  would  mature.  (I  say  "mine." 
Of  course,  Fisk  and  Gould  were  with  me.  But  I 
was  the  leader  of  the  party,  so  I  speak  of  it  in  my 
own  name.)  Jimmy  came  to  me  and  said:  "Guess 
it's  about  time  to  play  our  ace  of  trumps,  don't  you 
think  so  ?  We'll  make  Rome  howl."  I  said  I 
guessed  he  was  right.  So  we  called  in  Jay.  We 
held  a  council  of  war.  We  decided  that  the  time 
had  come  to  set  off  the  gunpowder. 

Accordingly,  we  went  to  a  printing-house  and  got 
them  to  print  a  hundred  thousand  shares  of  Erie. 
(It  was  those  convertible  bonds  now  being  turned 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         225 

into  stock.)  Of  course,  the  printer  could  turn  out 
only  the  blank  forms;  but  since  we  were  the  officers 
of  the  road,  or  controlled  the  officers,  such  as  the 
Secretary  and  such-like,  we  could  get  any  amount 
of  printed  blanks  signed  in  legal  manner  and  made 
thus  into  good  financial  paper. 

It  was  a  helpful  sight  to  see  that  printing  press 
work  so  smooth  and  fast.  For  we  had  only  a  few 
days  more  in  which  to  make  our  deliveries.  All 
the  Street  thought  we  were  cornered.  In  fact, 
Vanderbilt  himself  was  beginning  to  tell  around 
that  he  was  going  now  to  clean  up  the  Erie  stable 
inside  and  out  —  wasn't  going  to  leave  so  much  as 
a  grease  spot  of  us  behind.  It  was  an  exciting 
time.  The  Street  knew  that  big  things  were  about  to 
happen.  For  this  was  a  battle  of  the  giants.  Van 
derbilt  and  I  were  the  two  biggest  men  in  Wall 
Street.  When  the  two  big  roosters  on  the  dung-pile 
cross  spurs,  there's  going  to  be  some  feathers  flying. 

Gould  and  Fisk  stood  with  me  watching  the  print 
ing  press  as  she  turned  out  for  us  the  bright,  new 
stock  certificates.  Each  one  of  those  sheets  of  paper 
was  of  enormous  value  to  us.  Not  just  because  of 
the  amount  of  money  it  would  bring  in  dollars.  But 
this  was  a  war,  and  each  of  these  crisp  certificates 
was  a  cannon  ball,  so  to  speak.  If  we  could  pound 
the  Commodore  hard  enough  that  he  wouldn't  have 
time  to  recover  between  the  blows  but  would  be 
forced  to  knuckle  under,  then  we'd  have  him  at  our 


226         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

mercy,  and  all  of  his  property  also.  Besides,  with 
him  busted  up,  there  would  be  a  great  smash  in 
values,  and  we  on  the  Bear  side  of  the  market  would 
then  profit  all  along  the  line.  It's  far  more  impor 
tant  in  a  business  war  to  break  down  the  man  him 
self,  than  to  break  down  any  particular  piece  of  his 
property.  Because  when  the  man  goes  under,  all  of 
his  fortune  is  at  your  disposal.  So  these  bright 
new  sheets  of  paper  looked  very  beautiful  to  us. 
They  were  just  so  many  additions  to  our  ammuni 
tion  supply.  I  could  almost  have  hugged  that  print 
ing  press,  she  was  that  friendly  to  us.  Jimmy,  of 
course,  had  to  have  his  joke. 

"That  injunction  of  the  Commodore's,"  said  he, 
"was  aimed  against  the  freedom  of  the  press .  As  free- 
born  Americans  we  couldn't  stand  for  that.  Give  us 
enough  rag  paper  and  we'll  hammer  the  everlasting 
tar  out  of  that  mariner  from  Staten  Island." 

"Oh,  come  now,"  said  Jay;  "let's  don't  get  ram 
bunctious.  We're  not  out  of  the  woods  yet.  Our 
contracts  to  deliver  the  stock  are  rapidly  maturing. 
We  have  engaged  to  hand  over  to  the  Commodore 
such  enormous  blocks  of  it  that  I  can't  sleep  nights, 
thinking  of  it.  And  something  may  happen  yet  to  get 
in  our  way." 

"Happen!"  said  Jimmy,  and  he  was  as  calm  as  a 
cat  with  kittens;  "I'd  like  to  see  anything  happen! 
If  this  printing  press  don't  break  down,  we'll  give 
the  old  hog  all  the  Erie  he  wants." 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW         227 

I  scolded  him.  But  in  my  heart  I  was  glad  to 
have  a  partner  who  was  so  cock-sure.  For  we 
were  in  a  ticklish  place.  If  any  hitch  should  come, 
we  would  certainly  find  ourselves  in  the  tightest 
corner  a  man  was  ever  in,  and  got  out  alive. 
Jimmy's  spirit  kept  us  in  heart.  Fortunately,  the 
printing  press  didn't  break  down.  It  kept  on  with 
its  klickety-klack,  smooth  as  clock-work.  As  fast 
as  the  blank  certificates  were  turned  out  and  the 
printer's  ink  had  dried,  Fisk  took  them  and  made 
them  valid  by  putting  in  the  proper  signatures.  "  The 
Devil  has  got  hold  of  me,"  he  remarked;  "I  might 
as  well  keep  on  signing."  Soon  the  entire  issue  was 
finished,  and  tied  up  in  a  neat  bundle  at  the  Com 
pany's  office.  The  stock  was  now  good  financial 
paper. 

But  there  was  still  a  danger.  And  because  the 
amounts  at  stake  were  so  high,  we  determined  to 
take  no  chances.  The  Commodore  might  hear 
that  cur  printing  press  had  been  once  more  at  work, 
and  get  his  judge  to  enforce  his  injunction,  by 
attaching  this  new  bunch  of  Erie  shares.  In  which 
case  we  wouldn't  have  time  to  print  any  more;  for 
our  deliveries  were  maturing  the  very  next  day.  The 
Commodore's  judge  was  in  New  York  City,  right 
at  the  seat  of  war.  Whereas  our  judge  was  way 
out  in  Binghamton;  so  that  the  Commodore  could 
act  more  quickly  than  we;  and  this  was  a  time  when 
minutes  would  count. 


228         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

So  we  took  measures.  The  new  stock  was  over 
in  the  Erie  office  on  West  Street.  We  tied  up  the 
books  of  newly  printed  certificates  in  a  neat  paper 
bundle.  Then  we  called  the  office  boy  and  told 
him  to  take  that  bundle  over  to  the  Transfer  Office 
on  Pine  Street.  He  started  out  with  it.  When  he 
was  just  outside  the  door,  something  happened. 
He  returned  empty-handed,  and  white  as  a  sheet. 
He  said  that  a  man  —  a  big  blonde  individual,  with 
a  yellowish  moustache  and  a  large  shirt  front — had 
rushed  upon  him  whilst  he  was  in  the  hall,  grabbed  the 
bundle  from  him,  and  had  whisked  off  with  it  before 
he  could  say  "boo." 

"Dear,  dear!"  said  the  Secretary  (he  was  the  one 
who  had  been  enjoined  from  issuing  this  stock) 
"that's  too  bad!"  But  he  told  the  boy  not  to  mind; 
he  had  done  his  best,  anyhow;  it  wasn't  his  fault; 
and  sent  him  back  to  his  desk.  Wt  all  pretended 
to  be  het  up  over  the  matter;  but  we  were  pretty 
calm  inside.  Because  we  could  have  made  a  pretty 
close  guess  as  to  who  had  grabbed  the  bundle  away 
from  the  boy.  But,  of  course,  if  it  had  come  to  the 
taking  of  evidence  in  court,  the  Secretary  could  now 
clear  his  skirts;  because  the  stock  had  been  snatched 
out  of  his  keeping.  That  same  afternoon  those 
shares  turned  up  at  the  office  of  our  broker, 
parcelled  fifty  thousand  of  them  out  to  his  sub- 
agent  in  ten-thousand  share  lots.  Now  we  were 
ready  for  operations. 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         229 

The  next  morning  the  Stock  Exchange  opened 
calm  and  clear,  as  though  it  was  a  time  of  perfect 
peace.  The  president  of  the  Board  called  out  the 
shares  of  the  various  railroads  in  usual  order: 
"Union  Pacific!"  "Wabash!"  "New  York  Cen 
tral!"  -no  response.  He  met  with  a  dead  silence. 
Then  he  called  out  "Erie!"  Things  broke  loose  at 
once.  One  of  our  brokers  jumped  out  onto  the 
floor  and  offered  a  block  of  one  thousand  shares  of 
Erie;  he  followed  this  up  with  another  thousand 
that  with  another;  until  he  had  offered  five  thousand; 
shares  of  Erie  —  wanted  to  sell  them  right  then  and 
there.  Vanderbilt's  brokers  took  the  first  two  or 
three  thousand-share  blocks  cheerfully.  But  it  was 
noticed  that  they  looked  surprised.  Then,  almost 
before  our  first  broker  had  got  through,  another 
sprang  forward  and  offered  blocks  of  Erie  for  sale  - 
ten  thousand  in  all.  Our  first  broker  followed  up 
his  previous  offerings  with  five  thousand  more  (that 
made  up  his  ten  thousand.)  Still  another  of  our 
brokers  came  and  helped  push  along  the  landslide. 
He  yelled  out:  "A  thousand  shares  of  Erie  for  sale! 
A  thousand  more  of  Erie!  A  block  of  five  thou 
sand  shares  of  Erie!"  And  so  on  until  his  ten 
thousand  shares  were  offered. 

By  this  time  the  Vanderbilt  brokers  were  scared 
out  of  their  wits.  They  got  into  communication 
with  their  master.  "Hell  has  broke  loose/'  they 
sent  word  to  him.  :<  Thirty  thousand  shares  of 


230         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

Erie  have  come  raining  down  on  us  in  the  last  half- 
hour,  with  more  coming  out  every  minute.  What 
shall  we  do?" 

All  the  answer  he  gave  was:  "Support  the  mar 
ket." 

As  he  didn't  seem  at  all  flustered,  his  brokers  got 
courage,  went  back  and  took  our  offerings.  They 
succeeded  in  absorbing  the  whole  fifty  thousand 
shares  without  letting  the  market  sag  more  than  a 
point  or  two. 

But  now  came  the  death  stroke.  These  deliv 
eries  of  stock  were  made  right  away.  As  soon  as  the 
Exchange  saw  that  these  certificates  were  crisp  and 
new,  with  the  printer's  ink  hardly  dry  on  them,  the 
secret  was  out.  In  defiance  of  Vanderbilt's  injunc 
tion,  we  had  set  our  printing  press  to  work. 

The  landslide  then  broke  loose.  For  if  we  had 
been  able  to  cut  the  legal  red  tape  with  which  Van- 
derbilt  had  tried  to  tie  our  hands  —  had  found  a 
way  to  start  the  printing  press  to  work  once  more  - 
why,  it  was  good-night  to  the  Commodore.  Because 
there  is  no  limit  to  the  amount  of  blank  shares  a 
printing  press  can  turn  out.  White  paper  is  cheap 
—  it  is  bought  by  the  ream.  Printer's  ink  is  also 
dirt  cheap.  And  if  we  could  keep  on  working  that 
kind  of  deal  —  make  Vanderbilt  pay  us  fifty  or 
sixty  dollars  for  little  pieces  of  paper  that  hadn't 
cost  us  two  cents,  we  would  very  soon  have  all  of 
his  cash  ladled  out  of  his  pocket  into  ours. 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         231 

It  was,  I  guess,  the  darkest  hour  in  Vander- 
bilt's  life.  He  had  staked  his  reputation  and  a  good 
share  of  his  fortune  on  this  Erie  fight;  and  now  we 
had  suddenly  unmasked  a  battery  that  was  pouring 
hot  shot  into  his  ranks  thick  and  fast.  No  wonder 
his  followers  began  to  desert  him.  They  fell  off  by 
twos  and  threes.  There  was  a  small-sized  panic  all 
through  the  Vanderbilt  party.  Until  now  they  had 
looked  upon  their  leader  as  able  to  take  care  of  them. 
Some  of  them  had  begun  to  think  that  he  was  a 
sort  of  supernatural  person,  one  that  couldn't  be 
touched  by  mortal  hands.  But  now  his  career  seemed 
to  have  come  to  an  end.  He  was  no  longer  the  high 
and  mighty  one  that  he  had  been. 

This  was  the  moment  we  had  been  waiting  for. 
In  war  it  is  good  generalship  to  know  when  to  strike. 
We  now  dumped  the  other  fifty  thousand  shares 
onto  the  floor  of  the  Exchange  all  to  once.  The 
price,  which  had  been  at  83,  dropped  like  a  dead 
heifer.  It  was  as  though  the  bottom  had  fallen 
out  -  nothing  was  left  to  support  things.  Down 
and  down  and  down  it  went,  clean  to  71.  Consid 
ering  the  number  of  shares  involved,  and  the  size  of 
the  transactions,  it  was  the  biggest  stroke  Wall 
Street  had  ever  seen.  The  Commodore  himself 
wasn't  able  to  stand  out  any  longer.  The  price 
rallied  a  little  before  the  day  was  over,  for  it  was 
seen  that  the  Commodore  wasn't  as  yet  entirely 
swamped  —  he  took  all  the  stock  that  we  offered, 


232          THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

even  the  last  fifty  thousand,  and  paid  over  his  good 
cash  for  it.  But  the  market  had  made  a  fatal  break. 
Nothing  he  or  his  friends  could  do  would  bring  it 
back  again.  And  the  day  closed  with  me  and  my 
crowd  gloriously  on  top. 


XXIV 

THIS  was  Tuesday,  early  in  March.  The 
next  day,  Wednesday,  we  met  at  our 
Erie  Railroad  office  on  West  Street,  to 
count  our  profits.  It  was  a  happy  hour.  Seven 
million  dollars  of  Vanderbilt's  had  been  scooped 
out  of  his  pocket  into  ours.  Four  millions  of  it 
was  in  legal-tender  notes,  good  crisp  greenbacks. 
We  hardly  knew  where  to  stow  the  money.  We 
set  to  work  tying  it  up  in  bundles.  We  were  in 
high  spirits.  Jimmy  couldn't  get  over  laughing  and 
talking  about  the  "green  goods."  He  said  how 
the  Commodore  was  all  right  for  Staten  Island, 
but  he  ought  to  have  stayed  down  there  along  with 
the  other  farmers;  because  the  streets  of  New  York 
were  not  safe  for  people  who  didn't  know  the  game. 
We  were  all  in  good  heart. 

Just  then  a  messenger  came  and  said  something 
that  made  us  sing  another  tune.  He  told  us  that 
processes  for  contempt  of  court  were  being  issued 
against  us,  and  we  stood  liable  to  arrest  at  any 
moment.  That  would  mean  the  Ludlow  Street 
Jail.  I  was  that  flustered  I  didn't  know  which  way 
to  turn.  I  thought  of  our  Supreme  Court  judge 

233 


234          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

out  in  Binghamton,  and  wondered  if  we  could  get 
him  to  issue  an  injunction  enjoining  Vanderbilt's 
judge  from  sending  us  to  jail.  But  I  was  afraid 
we  wouldn't  have  time  to  reach  him.  For  the  mes 
sage  went  on  to  say  that  Vanderbilt  was  hopping 
mad,  and  was  swearing  by  all  the  gods  he  could 
think  of,  that  he  would  clap  every  last  man  of  us 
behind  the  bars  before  the  sun  went  down  that 
night. 

"There's  no  sun  to  go  down,  anyhow,"  said 
Jimmy,  looking  out  of  the  window;  it  was  a  foggy 
day,  and  seemed  to  be  getting  worse. 

"For  heaven's  sake,  shut  up!"  said  Jay;  and 
I  spoke  up  too.  I  said:  "Jimmy,  this  is  no  time 
for  your  fooleries.  In  tackling  the  Commodore  it 
kind  of  looks  as  though  we  had  woke  up  the  wrong 
passenger.  We  have  got  to  do  something,  and  do 
it  almighty  quick." 

"I'm  agreeable,"  said  he.  "I'll  tell  you  what 
I'm  going  to  do.  I'm  going  to  get  my  share  of  this 
swag  over  to  Jersey  in  about  two  jerks  of  a  lamb's 
tail;  also,  I'm  going  to  live  there  myself  for  a  while. 
Up  in  Brattleboro,  in  my  kid  days,  I  used  to  see 
individuals  whom  the  sheriff  was  very  anxious  to 
interview,  scoot  through  the  covered  bridge  which 
there  straddles  the  Connecticut;  and,  once  on  the 
New  Hampshire  side,  snap  their  fingers  at  the 
Vermont  sheriff.  I  have  been  feeling  the  need 
of  a  change  of  air  for  some  time  back,  and  think 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         235 

that  the  climate  of  Jersey  would  suit  me  to 
aT." 

"Just  the  thing,"  I  remarked,  jumping  up. 
"Once  across  the  ferry  we  will  be  out  of  York  State's 
jurisdiction.  Vanderbilt's  processes  and  writs 
couldn't  touch  us  there.  I  think  we'd  better  be  get 
ting  over  there  at  once." 

"Not  until  we  have  packed  up  these  souvenirs 
of  the  Commodore,"  said  Jimmy.  "It  was  very 
kind  of  him  to  send  us  so  many  birthday  cards"; 
and  he  began  to  get  the  bundles  of  greenbacks 
together. 

"And  there  are  the  account  books  of  the  Erie 
Railroad  and  the  other  records,  including  the  trans 
fer  books,"  put  in  Jay.  "Never  would  do  in  the 
world  to  leave  those  things  behind  for  Vander- 
bilt's  lawyers  to  get  hold  of.  The  Erie  Railroad 
is  packed  within  the  books  and  papers  right  in 
this  office.  If  the  Commodore  got  them,  inside  of 
three  months  he'd  have  the  road  reorganized.  Be 
sides,  we  can't  tell  how  long  our  stay  may  be  over 
there.  The  road  will  have  to  be  operated  while  we 
are  there."  Jay  was  always  a  thoughtful  sort  of 
chap.  He  could  look  a  long  ways  ahead. 

"Guess  you're  right,"  said  Jimmy.  "And  the 
Commodore's  idea  of  reorganization  for  the  road, 
would  reorganize  us  out  of  it  into  the  nearest  mud- 
gutter." 

"Or  into  the  Ludlow  Street  Jail,"  said  I.     "It's 


236         THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

my  feeling  in  the  matter  that  we  ought  to  be  moving 
right  away."  So  we  set  to  work.  We  got  together 
all  the  papers,  books,  and  other  valuables  which 
we  could  easily  move,  and  carried  them  into  a  dray, 
for  carting  over  to  the  Jersey  City  ferry. 

The  policeman  on  the  West  Street  beat,  between 
Chambers  and  Cortlandt,  saw  us  rushing  out  of  the 
Erie  office  with  our  pockets  and  arms  jammed 
with  bundles  of  greenbacks,  with  bags,  packages  - 
moveables  of  all  kinds.  He  hurried  over.  He 
called  to  us  to  halt. 

"What's  all  this  muss  about?"  said  he.  On 
account  of  the  mist,  he  couldn't  make  out  very  well 
who  we  were,  and  so  was  very  stern  in  his  manner. 
"Hold  your  horses  a  minute.  I  guess  I'll  take 
a  hand  in  this." 

But  we  called  out  to  him  that  it  was  all  right; 
that  we  were  the  officers  and  Executive  Committee 
of  the  Erie  Railroad,  and  had  been  compelled  to 
make  a  hasty  move  to  other  headquarters.  As 
he  was  closer  now  he  saw  who  we  were.  He  apolo 
gized  for  his  mistake.  He  said  he  was  sorry,  but 
through  the  fog,  as  he  saw  us  hurrying  out,  he 
thought  we  might  be  thieves. 

"Guess  again,"  said  Jimmy;  "you  were  wrong 
that  time.  We're  not  thieves.  Why,  bless  your 
stars,  we're  the  owners.  Only,  a  certain  individ 
ual  in  Wall  Street  with  whom  we  had  a  little  mis 
understanding  yesterday,  has  kind  of  struck  up  the  jig 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         237 

before  we  could  tune  our  fiddles.  We're  moving  over 
to  Jersey  for  a  temporary  change  of  scene/'  The 
officer  let  us  go.  A  five-dollar  greenback  seems  big  to 
a  policeman,  and  was  a  small  amount  to  us  just  then. 

We  held  the  ferry-boat  whilst  we  were  getting  the 
stuff  on  board.  We  saw  that  it  was  going  to  be  too 
slow  to  carry  all  the  money  by  hand,  so  we  got  a 
carriage.  We  bundled  over  four  million  dollars 
into  the  coach. 

By  and  by  we  had  the  stuff  on  board.  Gould 
said:  "There!  We'll  have  our  men  put  this  stuff 
over  in  the  Erie  Depot  for  us;  then  we  can  go  over 
to-night  or  to-morrow  ourselves.  We  can  get  our 
home  affairs  straightened  out  by  that  time,  and  be 
ready  for  a  sojourn  in  foreign  parts." 

But  I  spoke  up  at  once.  I  said  that  as  for  them 
they  could  remain  on  York  State  soil  as  long  as 
they  wished.  But  I  wasn't  going  to  shilly-shally 
there  another  minute.  I  was  going  to  leave  the 
State  by  the  same  ferry-boat  that  took  the  stuff. 
Because  Vanderbilt  wanted  to  get  hold  of  me  the 
worst  way,  and  would  have  liked  nothing  better 
than  to  hear  the  gate  clang  that  should  coop  me 
up  in  the  Ludlow  Street  Jail.  I  wasn't  going  to 
take  any  chances. 

"But,  man  alive,"  said  Jimmy,  "aren't  you  going 
to  say  good-bye  to   your   home    and    native   land  ? 
And  pack  up  some  of  your  personal  belongings  - 
a  clean  shirt  at  least  ?" 


238         THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

"Fm  not  going  to  say  good-bye  to  anybody," 
I  replied.  "I'm  going  to  leave  on  this  here  boat; 
you  fellows  can  be  as  foolhardy  as  you  wish.  I'll 
notify  my  home  when  I  get  onto  another  soil." 
So  I  went  onto  the  boat  and  gave  orders  to  the  cap 
tain  to  push  off.  Even  then  I  didn't  feel  safe  until 
the  gates  had  been  shut,  the  engine  started,  and  a 
fine  strip  of  water  spread  between  me  and  Vander- 
bilt's  process-servers.  In  fact,  I  couldn't  be  alto 
gether  sure  even  then,  because  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  York  State  courts  reaches  to  the  middle  of  the 
North  River;  I  didn't  know  but  what  he  might  have 
some  of  his  sheriffs  concealed  on  the  ferry-boat,  to 
nab  me  before  the  boat  got  into  Jersey  waters.  So 
I  didn't  move  around  much.  I  didn't  want  to 
attract  attention.  This  was  ten  o'clock  in  the 
morning.  At  that  time  of  day  there  isn't  much 
traffic  on  the  river  in  the  Jersey  direction.  There 
were  only  a  few  on  board.  I  didn't  have  much 
trouble  keeping  out  of  sight.  When  the  boat 
reached  the  middle  of  the  river,  I  got  my  spirits 
up;  and  when  at  last  she  bumped  into  the  slip  at 
Jersey  City,  and  I  was  on  foreign  soil,  I  felt  more 
like  my  old  self.  Vanderbilt  now  could  get  me  only 
through  extradition  papers  from  the  Jersey  officials. 
And  when  it  came  to  that,  I  thought  I  could  have 
something  to  say. 

We  had  arranged  that  Taylor's  Hotel,  which  is 
a  stone's  throw  from  the  ferry  terminal  in  Jersey 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         239 

City,  should  be  our  headquarters.  So  I  had  our 
goods  taken  over  there,  and  went  there  myself.  That 
afternoon  was  a  busy  one.  In  moving  from  New 
York  City  we  had  moved  also  the  Erie  Railroad 
head  office.  The  trains  were  running  as  usual. 
We  had  to  establish  some  kind  of  headquarters  in 
Taylor's  Hotel.  I  got  from  the  landlord  the  use  of 
several  rooms  which  connected  with  each  other, 
and  told  him  that  I  expected  some  more  of  my 
party  over  at  any  time. 

All  day  long  I  looked  for  Fisk  and  Gould.  But 
they  didn't  come.  I  began  to  think  they  had 
decided  to  stay  over  in  New  York  for  the  night. 
But  shortly  after  dark,  in  they  came.  And  they 
were  a  bedraggled  pair  of  men. 

"What  in  the  world!"  said  I.  "You  didn't 
have  to  swim  over,  did  you  ?" 

"Pretty  near,"  said  Jimmy;  "in  fact,  it  looked 
for  a  spell  as  though  we  weren't  going  to  get  here  at 
all.  It's  a  beast  of  a  day.  We  came  over  in  a  row- 
boat." 

"A  rowboat?"  said  I.  "How's  that?"  And  I 
looked  at  Jay.  He  pointed  me  to  Fisk. 

"You  tell  him,"  said  he. 

"Why,  nothing  special,"  said  Jimmy.  "Only 
we  were  taking  a  bite  together  at  Delmonico's,  after 
a  hard  day's  work,  when  a  message  came  that  the 
sheriff  was  after  us.  We  decided  to  scamper.  We 
didn't  dare  trust  the  ferries.  Because  after  the 


240         THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

news  of  your  departure  and  of  the  moving  of  the 
books  and  the  headquarters  of  the  Erie  Railroad 
got  out,  Vanderbilt  was  so  thundering  mad  we 
thought  he  might  have  watchers  now  at  every  ferry 
terminal.  So  we  went  down  to  your  People's  Line 
dock.  The  St.  John  was  in  the  slip.  We  told 
her  captain  who  we  were,  used  your  name,  and  said 
we  wanted  him  to  help  us  over  to  the  Jersey  shore. 
He  let  down  one  of  the  life-boats,  and  sent  two  of 
his  men  to  row  us  over.  I  said:  'Row  up  stream, 
so  as  to  keep  out  of  the  track  of  the  ferries/  We 
got  along  all  right  until  we  got  to  the  middle  of  the 
river;  when  I'll  be  blasted  if  the  fog  wasn't  so  thick 
and  with  the  night  coming  on,  we  got  lost!  We 
couldn't  do  anything  but  row  around  in  a  circle. 
We  came  deuced  near  being  run  down  two  or  three 
times,  but  managed  to  dodge.  By  and  by  one  of  the 
Pavonia  ferry-boats  came  along.  She  looked  as 
though  she  was  going  to  run  us  down,  sure-pop. 
We  called  out.  We  made  them  hear  just  in  time  to 
veer  their  boat  off.  Then  we  got  hold  of  her  guards 
and  hung  on.  We  came  mighty  near  being  swamped 
from  the  swash  of  the  paddle-wheels.  It  was  as 
slippery  a  job  as  a  man  ever  had.  But  we  managed 
it.  And  here  we  are,  a  little  the  worse  for  wear, 
but  hale  and  whole.  At  least,  I  am.  Jay  over  there 
looks  as  though  he'd  cave  in.  Cheer  up,  my  hearty! 
Nothing  is  lost  save  honour." 

"That's    just     what    I'm     thinking    of,"     said 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         241 

Jay.      "What   will    this    do    to    our   reputation    at 
home?" 

But  Jimmy  laughed  at  him.  "We've  got  the 
coin  right  here  with  us.  That's  all  we  care  about, 
isn't  it,  Uncle  ?"  and  he  looked  towards  me.  "So  we 
have  the  chink,  we'll  bear  the  stink." 


XXV 

IT  WAS  a  great  inconvenience  to  me  to  have 
to  move  so  suddenly  into  another  state,  and 
my  feelings  towards  Vanderbilt  in  it  all 
were  not  the  most  friendly.  I  missed  my  home  a 
good  deal.  I  was  at  this  time  nigh  onto  seventy 
years  old.  A  man  of  those  years  can't  pack  up  and 
move  so  suddenly  as  he  had  made  me  do,  without 
being  put  to  a  lot  of  hardship.  And  I  was  accord 
ingly  in  hopes  that  Vanderbilt  wouldn't  be  able  to 
live  through  the  pounding  that  we  were  giving  him. 
Because  if  he  should  bust  up,  we  could  go  back  to 
New  York  at  once.  But  if  he  should  manage  to 
keep  his  head  above  water,  he  could  work  it  so  as  to 
make  us  stay  in  Jersey  —  nobody^knew  how  long. 
And  for  a  time  the  prospects  were  bright.  It 
looked  as  though  Vanderbilt  would  go  under  any 
minute.  He  had  staked  his  fortune .  on  this  Erie 
fight;  and  now,  when  he  had  thought  he  had  me 
cornered  tight  as  a  bull's  knot,  I  had  up  and  given 
him  the  slip.  And  I  had  saddled  onto  him  a  hun 
dred  thousand  shares  of  fresh  Erie  stock  at  over 
seventy  dollars  a  share  —  stock  which  hadn't  cost 
me  anything  more  than  the  paper  and  the  expense  of 

242 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW         243 

printing.  It  was  a  critical  moment  for  him.  His 
friends  and  followers,  whose  fortunes  depended  on 
his,  hung  round  him  to  watch  his  actions.  They 
wanted  to  see  if  he  was  equal  to  the  strain.  Because 
the  market  was  in  a  panicky  condition.  Our  fight 
had  been  on  so  big  a  scale  that  it  had  sucked  all 
the  rest  of  the  Stock  Market  into  it.  It  looked  as 
though  the  biggest  crash  in  the  history  of  Wall  Street 
was  about  to  come.  Because  Vanderbilt  was  likely 
to  keel  over.  And  if  he  went,  all  the  stocks  that  he 
was  interested  in  would  go.  A  flood  of  selling  orders 
would  pour  into  the  market,  and  an  enormous  panic 
would  follow.  So  his  followers  hung  on  his  every 
movement.  I  believe  if  he  had  weakened  so  much 
as  by  the  quiver  of  an  eyelid,  a  moan  or  the  twitch 
ing  of  a  muscle,  it  would  have  been  immediately 
whispered  abroad  that  the  Commodore  was  giving 
way,  and  then  the  landslide  would  have  come. 

But,  unfortunately,  he  didn't  weaken.  He  had 
paid  over  seven  million  dollars  for  the  stock  we  had 
saddled  onto  him,  without  a  murmur.  Further, 
not  only  had  my  manoeuvre  hurt  his  reputation  for 
success,  but  it  had  withdrawn  from  Wall  Street  seven 
million  dollars  in  cash.  This  withdrawal  tightened 
the  money  market.  Money  rates  went  up,  stocks 
went  down.  Larger  margins  were  demanded  of  the 
Commodore  for  the  carrying  of  his  investments,  at  the 
very  moment  when  it  was  hardest  for  him  to  get  ready 
cash.  But  he  managed  it. 


244         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

Where  in  the  world  Vanderbilt  got  the  money  to 
support  the  market  at  this  time  of  times  in  his  life,  I 
never  found  out.  Where  in  the  world,  also,  he  got 
all  that  strength  of  nerve  to  stand  up  under  the 
strain,  not  showing  so  much  as  one  sign  of  weakening, 
is  more  than  I  can  see  through.  Why,  I  heard  after 
wards  that,  even  whilst  he  was  being  pounded  the 
hardest,  he  would  drive  his  span  of  horses  along  the 
Avenue  to  the  Park,  calm  as  anything;  frequent  the 
theatre,  dances  and  such  like  vanities,  or  spend  a 
whole  evening  playing  whist  with  his  friends.  As 
for  me,  I  never  indulge  in  worldly  amusements, 
which  the  Discipline  forbids,  or  so  much  as  touch 
cards  —  those  Devil's  playthings.  How  it  was  that 
he  dared  do  those  things,  and  at  the  very  time,  too, 
when  it  looked  as  though  he  might  go  under,  the 
time  of  all  times  when  he  ought  to  have  been  mourn 
ful  and  fasting  and  propitiating  the  Wrath,  is  past 
understanding. 

But  he  did.  And  he  weathered  the  storm.  He 
even  kept  up  a  show  of  spirits,  as  though  nothing  had 
happened.  Just  when  things  were  at  their  most 
critical,  one  of  his  brokers  went  to  him  and  asked: 

"Mr.  Vanderbilt,  will  you  sell  some  Erie  stock 
now?" 

He  answered  in  a  thundering  tone:  "Sell?  You 
fool,  no!  Take  every  share  offered." 

It  was  too  bad  that  we  weren't  able  to  break  down 
the  Commodore's  iron  nerve;  because  it  meant  that 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          245 

he  was  left  in  a  position  to  hit  back  and  do  us  a  power 
of  harm.  For  Vanderbilt  over  in  York  State  was 
as  cross  as  a  bull  with  a  sore  head,  when  he  saw  that 
we  were  out  of  his  reach.  I  fancied  I  could  see  him,  a 
big  lion  pacing  up  and  down  the  shore  line,  roaring 
over  at  us  and  getting  madder  all  the  time.  The 
thought  of  it  hurt  my  sleep.  To  be  sure,  he  couldn't 
get  at  us;  but  it's  a  fearsome  sound  to  have  a  dog 
bark  at  you  through  a  fence,  even  when  you  know 
he  can't  get  out.  Thinking  of  him  in  the  night 
would  give  me  goose  pimples;  I'd  get  the  creeps  all 
over,  like  when  you  take  a  dead  man  by  the  toe. 

We  settled  down  for  a  long  stay  at  Taylor's  Hotel. 
"  We  might  as  well  make  ourselves  comfortable,"  said 
I;  " because  we'll  probably  be  here  for  quite  a  spell." 

"Of  course  we'll  be  comfortable,"  said  Jimmy. 
"  I  never  did  just  take  to  this  town  as  a  permanent 
residence.  For  one  thing,  I  don't  think  her  girls 
can  hold  a  candle  to  some  of  the  Madame  Light- 
skirts  over  in  New  York.  I  guess  also  the  theatres 
are  sort  of  third-class  over  here.  But  what's  the 
difference  ?  We'll  be  so  busy  we  couldn't  gad 
about  even  if  we  wanted  to." 

So  we  began  to  make  ourselves  at  home.  We 
got  the  landlord  to  let  us  have  Room  No.  3  —  it 
was  the  Ladies'  Parlour  —  for  our  offices. 

"I  kind  of  like  the  name,"  said  Jimmy.  "It 
always  did  seem  to  me  that  a  'Ladies'  Parlour'  was 
just  the  kind  of  a  room  for  a  business  office." 


246          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

We  had  the  rooms  leading  off  from  that  for  our 
sleeping  quarters.  Our  dinner  at  night  was  served 
in  a  private  dining  room.  Jimmy  laid  in  a  store  of 
wine  and  told  the  landlord  to  put  himself  out  on  his 
bill  of  fare.  We  got  a  line  of  messengers  arranged 
between  our  hotel  and  the  Erie  Terminal  at  the 
Long  Dock.  Soon  we  had  an  office  for  the  Erie  Rail 
road  set  up  in  Taylor's  Hotel  that,  for  the  time  being 
at  least,  was  as  good  as  the  one  in  West  Street. 

The  Jersey  City  people  were  mightily  pleased  to 
have  us  with  them.  They  felt  that  our  presence  there 
was  an  honour  to  the  city,  seeing  that  we  were  the 
head  and  front  of  the  Erie  Railroad.  For  now 
they  had  not  only  the  main  depot  of  the  road 
within  their  city  limits,  but  the  business  head 
quarters  as  well  and  the  presence  of  its  Executive 
Committee.  We  encouraged  this  feeling  in  them. 
It's  a  good  thing  to  have  the  people  who  are  round 
about  you  favourable  to  you.  And  in  the  present 
case  I  had  reason,  very  soon  after,  to  be  thankful 
for  it.  Because  this  Erie  war  (and  it  was  a  real  war, 
too,  as  will  be  seen,  even  though  it  has  never  got 
into  the  histories)  soon  got  to  the  point  of  open 
violence. 

We  came  over  to  Taylor's  Hotel  on  a  Wednesday, 
in  the  month  of  March  (just  two  years  after  the  close 
of  the  Civil  War).  Things  ran  along  more  or  less 
smooth  for  a  day  or  two.  But  I  feared  that  every 
thing  was  not  going  to  be  right  for  long.  Because 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW         247 

the  Friday  following  fell  on  the  thirteenth  of  the 
month.  That's  always  bad.  I  was  afraid  some 
thing  would  happen  on  that  identical  date.  But  it 
didn't.  The  next  day  also  passed  off  calm.  Sun 
day  I  went  to  church  in  the  morning,  because  I  felt 
as  never  before  the  need  of  comforting  words. 
Besides,  I  wanted  to  set  an  example  to  the  rest,  in 
the  matter  of  attendance  on  the  stated  preaching  of 
the  gospel.  Because  (and  I  grieve  to  state  it)  I 
was  in  the  midst  of  an  ungodly  set.  Besides  myself, 
I  don't  know  as  there  was  another  Christian  in  the 
party.  They  were  all,  for  the  most  part,  profane 
men  and  breakers  of  the  Sabbath.  They  knew 
that  I  was  a  professor  of  religion;  so  now  I  wanted 
them  to  see  that  I  didn't  leave  my  piety  behind  when 
I  was  away  from  home. 

The  Sunday  kind  of  made  me  feel  more  at  ease  - 
seemed  to  take  away  some  of  the  fear  that  had 
come  over  me  when  Friday  fell  on  the  thirteenth. 
So  when  the  next  morning,  Monday,  dawned,  I 
was  more  or  less  calm.  I  was  seated  with  my  feet 
in  a  chair  in  our  Hotel  Taylor  headquarters,  think 
ing  how  nicely  we  were  getting  along  in  spite  of  the 
sudden  change  from  home  life  to  life  in  a  strange 
state.  When  suddenly  news  came  that  a  band  of 
toughs  had  come  over  from  New  York  City.  They 
were  collecting  on  the  Long  Dock  and  around  the 
Erie  Depot;  and,  as  the  day  wore  on,  their  numbers 
increased. 


248         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

I  at  once  gave  out  my  explanation  of  it.  I  said 
that  Vanderbilt  was  trying  to  kidnap  me.  He 
couldn't  get  me  in  his  clutches  by  legal  means  with 
out  extradition  papers  from  the  Jersey  authorities. 
And  we  were  so  in  favour  with  the  Jersey  people 
by  this  time  —  since  they  began  to  hope  we  would 
make  Jersey  City  the  permanent  headquarters  here 
after  of  the  Erie  Railroad  —  that  Vanderbilt  in  his 
rage  was  determined  to  get  me  by  fair  means  or 
foul;  so  he  had  collected  a  lot  of  hoodlums  from  the 
Washington  Market  district,  by  offering  a  reward 
of  fifty  thousand  dollars  to  any  one  who  would  bring 
me  over  to  New  York  City  and  into  his  hands  alive. 
Because,  as  soon  as  he  had  me  on  York  State  soil, 
he  could  serve  a  summons  on  me  for  violating 
the  injunction  of  his  judge,  Barnard.  He'd  clap  me 
behind  the  bars  in  the  Ludlow  Street  Jail,  and  then 
have  me  so  at  his  mercy  that  in  all  likelihood  he'd 
squeeze  out  of  me  the  fifty  thousand  he  had  paid  for 
my  capture,  and  perhaps  a  whole  lot  more. 

Jimmy  tried  to  "pooh-pooh"  me  out  of  my  scare. 
He  said  Vanderbilt  wouldn't  go  about  a  thing  in  so 
clumsy  a  fashion  as  that.  But  it  was  all  right  for 
Jimmy  to  be  at  ease.  He  wasn't  the  one  the  Commo 
dore  wanted.  I  was  the  big  fish  he  was  angling  for. 
If  he  could  strike  me  down,  me,  the  head  of  the 
enemy's  forces,  he  could  round  up  the  rest  of  them 
easy.  So  it  stood  me  in  hand  to  protect  myself. 
A  general  ought  never  to  expose  his  own  person. 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         249 

He  ought  to  keep  in  the  background,  out  of  the 
reach  of  danger.  So  much  depends  upon  him. 
He's  got  to  look  out  for  himself,  not  only  for  per 
sonal  reasons  —  and  I  had  personal  reasons,  good 
ness  knows;  for  if  those  Washington  Market  toughs 
had  once  got  me  in  their  clutches,  they'd  have  given 
me  a  shirtful  of  sore  bones  —  but,  also,  for  the 
good  of  the  cause  that  he  stands  for.  So  I  sounded 
the  alarm  good  and  strong. 

I  soon  got  Gould  to  see  the  thing  as  I  did.  When 
the  news  came  that  the  tough  characters  were  gather 
ing  in  the  neighbourhood  of  our  hotel,  Jay  got  very 
thoughtful.  He  began  to  snatch  off  the  corners  of 
a  newspaper  and  tear  them  into  bits.  I  had  come 
to  know  Jay  by  this  time.  I  knew  that  when  Jay 
gets  to  snipping  off  corners  of  newspapers,  it  is  a  sign 
he  is  mighty  uneasy  over  something.  By  and  by  he 
out  with  it. 

"It's  this  way,  Jim,"  he  said,  turning  to  Fisk. 
"It  isn't  that  our  persons  are  in  danger.  But  I'm 
thinking  of  the  money.  Here  we've  got  over  seven 
million  dollars,  a  lot  of  it  in  greenbacks.  All  of  it 
belonged  to  the  Commodore,  and  we've  taken  it 
away  from  him.  What  more  natural  than  that  he 
should  try  to  get  it  back,  by  hook  or  by  crook  ? 
At  a  time  like  this,  when  things  are  in  all  kinds  of 
confusion,  possession  is  nine  points  of  the  law.  The 
Law  Courts  are  all  tangled  up.  Vanderbilt  has 
on  his  side  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  New  York 


250         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

City  District,  we  have  on  our  side  the  Supreme 
Court  in  the  Binghamton  District.  The  judges 
are  issuing  so  many  injunctions  back  and  forth  that, 
so  far  as  the  law  stands,  there  isn't  a  lawyer  at  the 
New  York  bar  can  unravel  the  snarl.  At  such  a 
time  the  fellow  who  has  the  cash  right  in  his  own 
fist  is  a  sight  better  off  than  the  fellow  who  techni 
cally  has  the  law  on  his  side,  but  without  the  cash. 
With  the  money  in  our  fist,  we  have  nine-tenths  of 
the  Law;  and  Vanderbilt  is  welcome  to  the  other 
tenth,"  Jay  added  with  a  grin.  It  was  seen  by 
Jimmy  also,  after  we  had  held  our  council  of  war, 
that  my  suspicions  as  to  Vanderbilt's  hand  in  this 
move  were  not  so  crazy  after  all.  The  thought  of 
putting  on  a  uniform  and  of  having  real  soldiers 
to  command,  sort  of  appealed  to  Fisk,  anyhow. 
We  decided  to  take  immediate  steps  of  defence. 

I  called  Chief  of  Police  Fowler,  and  he  got  fifteen 
picked  men  from  the  Jersey  City  police  force  to  guard 
the  approaches  to  Taylor's  Hotel  -  "Fort  Taylor,'* 
as  Jimmy  now  called  it.  Then  we  summoned 
Inspector  Masterson,  who  was  General  Superin 
tendent  of  Police  for  the  Erie  Railroad.  He  organ 
ized  a  force  of  the  Erie  Railroad  employees  to  patrol 
the  Long  Dock  and  the  streets  around  our  citadel. 
Three  twelve-pounders  were  mounted  on  the  dock 
dividing  the  ferry  from  the  Cunard  wharves,  with 
the  Hudson  County  Artillery  in  reserve. 

Inasmuch  as  it  promised  now  to  be  a  state  of  war, 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         251 

we  detailed  ourselves,  each  to  have  charge  of  some 
particular  part  of  the  defense.  Masterson  was 
under  my  charge,  because  I  could  supervise  him 
and  his  men  without  going  out  from  the  "Fort";  and 
I  thought  it  best  at  this  particular  crisis  not  to 
expose  myself  unnecessarily.  We  had  a  small  navy 
hastily  gathered.  It  consisted  of  four  life-boats, 
manned  by  a  dozen  men  each.  These  we  armed 
with  Springfield  rifles.  Jimmy  took  charge  of  the 
navy. 

"I'll  take  care  of  that  end/'  he  said,  as  soon  as  a 
fleet  of  armed  boats  had  been  suggested.  "I  wish 
I'd  thought  to  bring  over  one  of  my  uniforms." 

Jimmy  liked  to  be  in  command  of  boats,  soldiers 
and  such  like,  where  he  could  give  orders  with  a 
loud  voice  and  wear  a  sword.  (He  used  to  like  noth 
ing  better  than  to  go  up  the  Sound  on  one  of  his 
steamboats,  walk  up  and  down  the  decks  covered 
with  gold  lace,  and  then,  when  he  had  got  the  boat 
some  distance  up  the  Sound  and  the  passengers  were 
all  to  sleep  and  couldn't  look  at  him  any  longer,  he 
would  have  another  boat  come  and  take  him  off 
and  back  to  the  city.)  So  now,  as  soon  as  a  real 
navy  was  under  way,  Jimmy  said  that  he'd  take 
charge  of  it.  That  was  the  place  of  greatest 
danger,  he  said,  and  he  wanted  to  be  on  the  firing 
line.  So  he  became  the  "Admiral."  It  was  a 
name  he  liked,  anyhow.  Fisk  was  a  vainglorious 
man.  Still  he  wasn't  a  timid  person  —  wasn't 


252          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

afraid  of  anything,  for  that  matter.  He  could  face 
a  street  full  of  sheriffs  without  scaring.  'There's 
no  gallows  built  high  enough  to  hang  Jim  Fisk,"  he 
used  to  say. 

Besides  the  guards  around  Fort  Taylor,  we  sent 
over  a  dozen  detectives  to  watch  the  ferry  terminals 
in  New  York  City  and  also  on  the  Jersey  side. 
These  were  scouts,  so  to  speak,  to  let  us  know  of  the 
advance  of  the  enemy,  before  they  got  within  dan- 
gersome  distance.  We  set  five  other  detectives  to 
watch  the  hoodlum  neighbourhoods  in  NewYork  City, 
and  find  out  if  there  was  any  recruiting  going  on. 
We  had  a  dozen  couriers  to  run  back  and  forth 
from  "Fort  Taylor"  to  the  Erie  Railroad  to  carry 
our  messages.  Because  the  business  of  the  Road  had 
to  be  cared  for,  even  during  the  state  of  war  in  which 
we  then  were.  Gould  was  in  charge  of  this,  the 
Business  Department.  For  freight  agents,  divi 
sion  superintendents  and  such-like  were  reporting 
to  us  now  at  Taylor's  Hotel,  instead  of  at  the  offices 
in  West  Street.  Jay  was  always  a  good  hand  at  busi 
ness  details.  With  Fisk  as  Admiral  of  the  navy,  and 
Jay  in  charge  of  running  the  railroad,  that  left  me 
free  to  superintend  the  land  forces  for  our  defence. 
As  night  drew  on,  I  had  Chief  Fowler  and  Mr. 
Gaffney,  president  of  the  Jersey  City  Police  Com 
missioners,  over  at  "Fort  Taylor"  to  a  council  of 
war.  It  was  seen  that  the  night  was  the  time  of 
greatest  danger.  Should  the  enemy  charge  down 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         253 

on  us  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  they  might  over 
power  any  ordinary  police  guards  and  whisk  us  and 
our  cash  over  to  the  other  side  of  the  river  before  the 
Jersey  City  people  knew  it.  So,  as  darkness  settled 
down,  we  agreed  upon  a  set  of  signals  whereby  the 
whole  city  could  be  alarmed  if  the  attack  should  come 
-  fire  signals  if  the  attack  came  by  night,  and  an 
alarm  with  guns  if  the  attack  came  by  day.  Fur 
ther,  a  force  of  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  citizens 
of  Jersey  City  came  and  surrounded  the  "fort," 
and  they  agreed  that  in  case  of  need  they  would 
summon  the  entire  city  to  our  rescue. 

A  pair  of  double  doors,  with  a  transom  above, 
led  from  the  business  office  into  our  sleeping  rooms. 
These  doors  didn't  offer  as  much  protection  as  I 
should  have  liked.  They  were  not  built  for  an 
assault.  A  force  of  prize-fighting  toughs  might  break 
them  down,  or  perhaps  get  in  at  me  by  means  of 
the  transom,  whilst  I  was  asleep.  So  we  had  a  force 
of  guards  stationed  in  the  big  outer  room  by  night. 

Winds  blow  hard  on  high  hills.  For  once  in 
my  life  I  had  trouble  in  going  to  sleep.  Commonly, 
I  have  been  a  good  sleeper.  Even  in  the  most  excit 
ing  times  of  my  life  I  haven't  lost  a  wink  of  sleep 
over  business  matters.  But  now  it  was  different. 
Over  there  in  Jersey  City  everything  was  so  strange. 
It  wasn't  like  what  I  had  been  used  to  at  home.  And 
I  told  some  of  the  others  of  my  uneasiness. 

"Now,    see   here,    Uncle,"    said    Jimmy,    finally, 


254         THE  BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

"don't  you  get  to  snivelling.  You'll  be  taken  care 
of  all  right.  My  navy  is  on  guard.  If  Vanderbilt 
tries  to  come  over,  we'll  swab  the  deck  with  him. 
I  have  mounted  some  artillery  on  the  docks.  The 
military  forces  of  the  city  are  aroused.  You  and  the 
money  will  be  looked  after." 

"Yes,"  said  I;  "I  believe  you  care  more  about 
guarding  the  money  than  you  do  about  guarding  me. 
I  almost  believe  you  would  like  to  have  me  caught 
and  taken  over  there  into  Vanderbilt's  clutches." 

"Bosh  and  tommyrot!"  said  he;  "don't  you  know 
we  are  just  as  anxious  to  keep  you  away  from  the 
Commodore  as  you  are  yourself?  A  pretty  broth 
you  would  spice  up  for  the  rest  of  us,  if  you  and  he 
got  your  noddles  together." 

"Well,  then,"  said  I,  "if  you  are  so  set  on  taking 
care  of  me,  why  don't  you  do  it,  and  increase  the 
guards  ?  Why,  a  thousand  of  those  hoodlums  from 
Cherry  Hill  might  come  over  here  in  the  middle  of 
the  night  in  rowboats  —  no  one  knows.  They'd 
be  enough  to  carry  off  this  whole  hotel,  lock,  stock 
and  barrel,  and  us  inside  of  it!" 

"As  to  crossing  that  North  River  in  rowboats 
at  night,"  said  Jimmy,  "rest  your  boots  that  if  any 
of  them  tried  it,  they'd  be  out  of  commission  by 
the  time  they  got  to  this  side.  It's  the  gol  damnedest 
river  to  get  lost  in  that  I  ever  saw  in  all  my  born 
days.  While  as  to  guards  —  just  step  out  here  a 
minute."  He  took  me  out  through  the  double  doors 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW         255 

into  the  big  outer  room;  there  he  showed  me  the 
watchmen.  They  were  sleeping  on  beds  made  of 
blankets  spread  on  the  floor.  As  we  came  in  they 
arose  and  saluted  us  —  real  military  style. 

"Mr.  Drew/'  said  Jimmy,  "these  are  the  men 
who  are  protecting  you,  and  they  look  well  able  to 
do  it,  don't  they  ?" 

I  had  to  say  something.  I  answered  that  they  did 
look  to  be  strong  men,  loyal  and  true,  if  the  time 
came  to  fight.  And  I  had  no  doubt  they  would  be 
willing  to  give  up  their  lives,  if  need  be,  at  the  call 
of  duty.  The  men  saluted  once  more,  and  we  went 
back  into  our  own  rooms. 

Even  then  I  didn't  get  a  good  night's  rest.  The 
trouble  was,  I  couldn't  be  sure  of  the  kind  of  treat 
ment  I  would  get  at  the  hands  of  those  toughs,  if 
they  once  got  me  into  their  clutches.  In  fact,  I 
thought  I'd  rather  have  fallen  into  Vanderbilt's  own 
hands  than  into  theirs.  Because  they  were  a  vio 
lent  set  of  men.  I  tossed  on  my  bed  considerable. 
But  I  had  some  company  in  my  misery,  because 
Gould  was  even  worse  off.  Jay  wasn't  anywheres 
near  so  good  a  sleeper  as  I.  Even  amidst  ordinary 
business  worries,  Jay  used  to  have  nights  when  he'd 
lie  awake  for  hours.  Why,  he  even  had  a  cup  of 
hot  milk  by  his  bed,  for  him  to  drink  in  the  night 
when  he  couldn't  get  to  sleep  any  other  way. 

The  night  wore  away  without  any  attack.  The 
next  day,  the  news  of  our  preparedness  got  over  to 


256         THE  BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW 

New  York.  Then  we  knew  we  were  less  likely  to 
be  disturbed.  Because  in  war,  when  your  enemy 
knows  you  are  ready  for  him,  he  isn't  anywheres  near 
so  likely  to  come  at  you.  After  a  few  days  the  threat 
of  violence  passed  away.  But  we  still  kept  up  our 
guard,  particularly  at  night. 


XXVI 

WE  NOW  got  a  bill  introduced  in  the  Jersey 
Legislature  which  was  then  in  session, 
incorporating  the  Erie  Railroad  under 
a  New  Jersey  charter,  with  headquarters  in  Jersey 
City.  The  bill  proposed  to  give  to  the  road  all  of 
the  rights  which  it  held  as  a  York  State  corporation. 
Vanderbilt,  as  soon  as  he  heard  that  such  a  bill 
had  been  introduced,  got  a  lobby  to  work  at  Trenton 
and  fought  the  bill  tooth  and  nail.  So  long  as  we 
were  in  Jersey  as  a  visitor,  he  knew  he  would  have 
a  handle  on  us.  The  Erie  charter  was  a  York 
State  thing,  and  didn't  look  to  any  moving  of  the 
headquarters  permanently  out  of  the  State.  So  if 
Vanderbilt  could  defeat  us  in  getting  a  home  in 
Jersey,  he  would  be  able  to  get  us  back  onto  York 
State  soil  soon  or  late. 

But  we  also  set  a  lobby  to  work.  And  here  we 
had  two  or  three  things  in  our  favour.  We  were 
nearer  Trenton  than  he  was.  In  the  next  place, 
we  had  a  lot  of  ready  cash,  whereas  he  was  scant 
of  cash  by  precisely  the  amount  which  had  been 
put  into  our  Dockets.  And  in  the  third  place,  it 
was  a  welcome  thing  to  Jerseyites,  this  prospect  of 

257 


258          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL    DREW 

moving  the  headquarters  of  the  railroad  to  their 
soil. 

We  worked  this  last  lever  all  we  could.  We 
wanted  at  least  the  appearance  of  a  settled  abode 
in  Jersey  City,  so  that  the  Commodore  would  give 
up  the  job  of  waiting  for  us  to  come  back,  and  go 
to  something  else.  We  made  believe  that  we  liked 
it  in  Jersey  even  better  than  we  had  over  in  New 
York.  In  fact,  we  even  went  so  far  as  to  get  Jay  to 
buy  a  beautiful  house  in  Jersey  City,  and  to  give 
out  that  he  would  move  his  family  there  shortly. 
With  these  helps  we  got  the  bill  jammed  through 
both  houses  of  the  Legislature  at  Trenton.  The 
Governor  signed  it.  This  was  notice  served  on 
Vanderbilt  that  we  were  in  this  fight  in  earnest.  He 
was  boasting  that  he  would  keep  us  over  there  until 
we  fried  in  our  own  fat-  "till  we  stewed  in  our 
own  juice"  was  the  way  he  put  it.  So  now  we 
showed  him  we  could  stay  in  Jersey  just  as  long  as 
was  necessary. 

At  Taylor's  Hotel,  Jimmy  was  all  the  time  getting 
off  jokes.  At  the  dinner  table  at  night,  he  was  full 
of  mirth.  He  started  a  kind  of  a  camp  fire  to  take 
up  our  time  after  dinner  was  through.  "We'll 
hoist  the  flag  of  No-surrender  at  this  citadel,"  he 
used  to  say,  and  he  would  get  some  of  the  people 
about  him  of  an  evening  to  sing  war  songs.  He  was 
getting  to  be  high-cockalorum  in  one  of  the  militia 
regiments  over  in  New  York  City,  and  liked  to  keeo 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          259 

up  the  military  idea.  I  used  to  laugh  at  his  jokes, 
even  when  I  didn't  see  much  fun  in  them,  he  had 
such  a  hearty  way  of  getting  them  off.  He  would 
joke  me  by  saying  that  the  Commodore  was  of  more 
use  in  the  world  than  I  was.  "Vander  built  and 
Dan  drew/'  was  the  way  he  used  to  put  it.  Still 
I  was  glad,  first  along,  to  have  him  and  Gould  with 
me  at  Taylor's  Hotel.  For  I  felt  the  need  of  partners 
in  the  fight  I  had  on  my  hands.  It's  a  fine  thing 
when  friends  do  each  other  a  good  turn.  You 
scratch  my  back  and  I'll  scratch  yours,  as  we  used 
to  say  in  drover  days  —  help  me  and  I'll  help  you. 

But  after  a  few  days  at  Fort  Taylor,  our  relation 
ships  became  a  little  strained.  And  this  got  more 
so  as  our  stay  lengthened.  Because  I  had  brought 
over  with  me  a  big  sum  of  money  —  the  proceeds 
from  the  sale  of  stock  to  Vanderbilt  —  and  Jimmy 
and  Jay  wanted  some  of  it.  They  kept  pestering 
me  to  divide  up  with  them.  Until  that  sum  of 
money  came  in  among  us,  I  can  truthfully  say  that 
we  had  been  as  friendly  together  as  anything.  Like 
dogs  which  play  together  free  and  happy,  until 
there's  a  bone  thrown  among  them.  I  was  almost 
sorry  I  had  the  money,  they  pestered  me  so  for  it. 
From  the  time  they  got  their  eyes  on  those  green 
backs,  we  agreed  like  three  cats  in  a  gutter.  I  was 
anxious  to  have  the  war  come  to  an  end,  and  get 
away  from  them. 

We  tried  in  several  ways  to  hit  back  at  the  Commo- 


260         THE  BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW 

dore  and  lay  him  out.  For  no  one  must  think  that 
in  this  war  we  were  only  on  the  defensive,  and  that 
Vanderbilt  was  doing  all  the  attacking.  We  soon 
came  to  see  that  the  best  way  to  fight  fire  is  by  start 
ing  a  back  fire.  We  had  Vanderbilt  already  on  the 
rack,  because  of  the  money  he  had  lost  to  us,  and 
because  of  the  stringency  caused  by  the  withdrawal 
of  that  money  to  the  Jersey  soil.  Now  we 
started  in  to  push  the  fight  still  closer  home  to  him, 
by  attacking  his  property,  the  New  York  Central. 
We  announced  that  the  Erie  was  going  to  cut  by 
one-third  both  its  passenger  and  freight  rates  from 
New  York  to  Buffalo.  We  actually  made  a  start 
by  cutting  the  passenger  rate  so  low  —  from  $7  to 
$5  —  that  the  New  York  Central  couldn't  possibly 
meet  it.  (In  fact,  the  Erie  Railroad  couldn't  afford 
the  rate  either;  but  then  we  as  its  Executive  Com 
mittee  were  in  a  tight  fix  and  thought  it  no  more 
than  right  that  the  Erie  should  come  to  our  rescue.) 
We  also  let  it  be  noised  abroad  that  we  planned  to 
start  a  fifty-cent-fare  line  of  boats  from  New  York 
to  Albany,  which  would  hurt  Vanderbilt's  Hudson 
River  Railroad. 

We  got  in  an  attack  on  him  in  still  a  third  way. 
We  got  our  agents  to  introduce  in  the  Legislature 
at  Albany,  which  was  then  also  in  session,  a  bill 
legalizing  the  $10,000,000  issue  of  stock  that  our 
printing  press  had  turned  out.  Some  scoffers  called 
it  "A  Bill  to  Legalize  Counterfeit  Money."  But 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         261 

I  have  made  it  a  rule  all  through  my  life  never  to 
mind  what  scoffers  say.  Vanderbilt  fought  the  bill 
hard.  And  now  he  was  in  a  better  position  than 
we.  Because  though  we  had  been  nearer  to  Trenton, 
he  was  now  nearer  to  Albany.  More  than  that, 
he  could  go  and  come  when  he  wanted  to;  while 
we  were  hindered  by  our  inability  to  cross  even  onto 
York  State  soil.  It  began  to  look  as  though  our 
bill  there  would  be  defeated. 

Finally,  after  the  bill  had  been  reported  out  of 
the  Committee,  we  found  we  lacked  one  vote  of 
the  number  necessary  to  pass  it.  We  saw  some 
thing  desperate  would  have  to  be  done.  I  called 
a  council  of  war.  I  showred  how  that  one  of  us 
wrould  have  to  run  the  risk  and  go  up  to  Albany. 
When  they  proposed  me,  I  said  I  couldn't  do  it 
nohow.  I  was  the  big  toad  in  this  puddle.  Vander 
bilt  would  pounce  onto  me  before  I  got  half-way  up 
to  Albany,  and  fix  me  up  so  quick  that  my  legislative 
usefulness  would  be  over  before  it  had  begun.  Fisk 
would  have  been  a  good  one,  only  he  was  such  a 
dashy  fellow.  As  soon  as  he  got  there  just  like  as 
not  he  would  start  in  to  cut  a  splurge  and  drive 
around  in  four-in-hands,  with  half  the  chorus  girls 
in  Albany.  He  wasn't  fitted  to  do  a  work  softly, 
as  this  had  to  be  done.  Gould  was  the  man.  So 
I  told  him  that  he  just  had  to  go  and  represent  me 
there  in  the  fight  at  Albany. 

"All    right,"    said    he    finally.     "We'll   send    out 


262          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

word  to  the  press  that  I  have  started  off  to  Ohio, 
to  push  the  completion  of  the  eighty  miles  of  broad- 
gauge  track  from  Akron  to  Toledo,  to  give  us  that 
connection  with  Chicago  we  have  been  talking  about 
so  long.  Also  draw  off  a  half-million  dollars  from 
the  Erie  treasury  —  (charge  it  up  to  sundries)  - 
as  my  ammunition."  So  we  told  the  newspaper 
reporters  that  Gould  was  off  on  the  Ohio  trip.  We 
gave  him  a  trunk  full  of  greenbacks,  and  started 
him  off  to  Albany  sort  of  quiet-like. 

We  hadn't  worked  it  any  too  softly.  The  moment 
he  got  to  Albany  and  had  set  up  his  headquarters 
at  the  Delevan  House,  Vanderbilt  got  wind  of  it 
and  had  his  New  York  judge  summon  him  to  New 
York  City  right  off  to  answer  a  writ.  Gould  went 
back  to  New  York  in  response  to  the  writ.  He  then 
got  the  case  put  off.  The  judge  said,  "Mr.  Gould, 
I'll  postpone  the  trial.  Further,  I'll  put  you  under 
the  personal  charge  of  an  officer  who  will  see  that 
you  don't  escape  us."  So  the  judge  detailed  an 
officer  to  be  with  Gould  every  minute.  He  said  to 
him,  "See  to  it,  officer,  that  he  doesn't  get  out  of 
your  sight."  Gould  went  back  to  Albany.  The 
officer  went  along  as  a  kind  of  valet.  At  the  Dele- 
van  House  Gould  very  soon  had  the  senators  and 
assemblymen  coming  to  see  him  by  ones  and  twos 
and  threes.  Now  and  then  he  went  up  in  person 
to  the  Capitol  on  the  hill. 

He  carried  on  my  business  there  so  successfully 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL    DREW          263 

that  Vanderbilt  began  to  scare  and  got  word  sent  to 
the  officer  who  was  in  charge  of  Gould.  So  the 
officer  hinted  that  Gould's  presence  was  very  much 
desired  back  in  New  York.  Gould  answered  that 
he  was  sick  and  couldn't  possibly  stand  a  railway 
journey  to  New  York  at  this  time  —  would  have  to 
wait  for  a  few  days. 

"Now  see  here,"  said  the  officer;  "you  don't 
come  any  such  game  as  that  on  me.  You  were 
well  enough  just  now  to  go  up  to  the  Capitol  in  a 
snowstorm.  If  you  can  do  that,  and  if  you  can 
spend  the  day  and  half  the  night  in  your  secret  con 
ferences  with  committeemen  from  the  Legislature, 
I  guess  you're  strong  enough  to  make  the  trip  to 
New  York  with  me,  when  the  Court  orders  it." 

Gould  said  he  couldn't  think  of  it  —  it  would 
be  too  great  a  strain  on  his  strength  —  it  was  inhuman 
for  any  law  court  to  ask  him  to  do  it.  So  the  officer 
had  to  come  back  to  New  York  alone  and  report 
to  the  court  that  his  prisoner  was  virtually  a  runaway, 
for  he  had  refused  to  obey  the  Court's  command. 
This  gave  Gould  a  few  days  longer  to  be  at  liberty, 
which  he  employed  in  fixing  up  some  more  legis 
lators.  Finally  he  got  enough  to  secure  the  bill's 
passing. 

But  it  had  been  costly  work.  Those  fellows  at 
Albany  were  a  slippery  lot.  To  keep  one  of  them, 
even  after  you'd  got  him,  was  like  holding  a  wet 
eel  by  the  tail,  they  were  that  untrustworthy.  When 


264         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

you  have  secured  a  Senator  to  vote  your  way,  at  a 
price  of  $15,000  and  then  have  him  flop  to  the  other 
side  for  $20,000  —  well,  it  shows  the  kind  of  people 
I  had  to  deal  with  in  these  transactions.  The 
New  York  Independent  called  this  Legislature 
of  1868  the  "worst  assemblage  of  official  thieves 
that  ever  disgraced  the  Capitol  of  the  Empire  State." 
And  there  were  times  in  the  conduct  of  these  nego 
tiations  when  I  thought  that  that  editor  was  right. 
In  the  committee  of  investigation  which  the  Senate 
appointed  afterwards  to  look  into  the  charges,  they 
tried  to  cover  up  themselves  by  attacking  me.  One 
of  the  senators  said  that  my  conduct  in  these  matters 
had  been  what  he  called  "disgraceful,"  and  he 
expressed  his  belief  that  Gould  and  Fisk  "were 
concerned,  and  probably  interested  with  Drew  in 
these  corrupt  proceedings."  I  give  his  exact  words, 
because  they  have  found  their  way  into  the  official 
documents  of  the  State;  otherwise  I  wouldn't  have 
noticed  them. 

The  ups  and  downs  of  the  Bill  as  it  was  on  its 
way  through  the  Legislature  was  the  means  of  all 
kinds  of  rumours  on  the  Stock  Exchange.  The 
whole  market  was  unsettled.  Vanderbilt  didn't 
like  that  state  of  affairs.  The  fight  was  hurting  him 
considerable.  His  New  York  Central  slumped  from 
132  to  109.  He  had  said  he  would  support  the 
market  if  he  had  to  mortgage  every  dollar  of  property 
he  possessed.  But  the  job  was  too  big.  Further- 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          265 

more  he  was  exposed  to  fresh  issues  of  Erie  stock,  and 
we  threatened  'most  every  day  now  to  start  our 
printing  press  going  once  more.  His  friends  were 
getting  scary,  and  more  and  more  were  leaving  him. 
The  Commodore  began  to  see  that  in  trying  to  oust 
me  and  my  crowd  from  the  Erie  management,  he 
had  roped  a  heifer  that  he  couldn't  hold.  So  about 
this  time  I  got  a  note  from  him  looking  to  a  settle 
ment.  Most  likely  he  thought  of  me  as  the  one 
through  whom  he  could  best  start  the  negotiations. 
Because  he  and  I  had  been  friends  in  former  days 
and  I  had  named  my  son  after  his. 

I  was  glad  to  get  the  note  and  to  see  that  the  war 
was  coming  to  an  end.  I  didn't  like  it  over  in  Jersey. 
It  wasn't  home.  I  used  to  take  a  walk  around  the 
city  two  or  three  times  a  day;  I  tried  to  be  at 
ease.  But  it  wouldn't  go.  There  wasn't  any  snap 
in  me.  Each  morning  I'd  start  into  the  day's 
work  limply,  like  a  horse  that's  got  corns.  I  couldn't 
do  much  else  than  sit,  sometimes  for  half  a  day  at 
a  time,  with  my  feet  up  in  a  chair,  thinking.  Over 
in  my  big  house  in  New  York,  and  busy  every  day 
in  Wall  Street,  I  had  been  as  happy  as  pigs  in  pea- 
straw.  I  was  tired  of  being  away  from  home.  A 
man  at  my  age  misses  the  comforts  of  family  life. 
I  wanted  to  sleep  in  my  own  bed,  be  with  my  own 
family,  sit  in  my  own  pew  on  Sunday,  go  to  the 
Wednesday  night  class,  and  such-like. 

It  had  been  hard  for  the  letter  to  get  from  Vander- 


266         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

bilt  to  me,  Jimmy  and  Jay  were  so  all-fired  suspicious 
of  me.  They  were  afraid  I  was  going  to  betray 
them  and  make  terms  with  the  Commodore  with 
them  left  out.  "I'll  stake  my  back  teeth  you're 
planning  to  flop,"  Jimmy  said  once.  And  he  issued 
orders  to  the  landlord  to  tell  all  the  servants  that  no 
mail  matter  or  bit  of  paper  of  any  kind  was  to  be 
delivered  to  me  without  his  seeing  it  first.  He 
wouldn't  even  let  me  get  a  telegram,  but  he  must 
open  it  before  it  got  into  my  hands. 

But  the  Commodore  was  clever  and  worked  it 
very  shrewd.  He  got  a  detective  to  come  to  Taylor's 
Hotel  and  put  up  there  as  a  commercial  traveller. 
This  detective  slipped  a  note  to  the  head  waiter  - 
for  we  ate  in  a  private  dining  room,  as  a  precaution 
against  process-servers  —  and  told  him  to  hand  it 
to  me.  The  head  waiter  said  the  orders  from  the 
proprietor  were  so  strict  that  he  was  like  to  lose 
his  job  if  he  took  any  note  to  me. 

"That's  all  right,"  said  the  detective;  "Vanderbilt 
will  give  you  another  job  when  you  lose  this  one." 
So  the  note  was  handed  to  the  waiter  and  he  slipped 
it  to  me  on  the  sly. 

The  note  was  short.     It  read  something  like  this. 

"DREW:- 

"Fm  sick  of  the  whole  damned  business. 
Come  and  see  me.  VANDERBILT." 

I  tried  to  make  away  with  the   paper  at  once. 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         267 

But  I  wasn't  quick  enough.  The  rest  had  spied 
it,  and  now  were  furious  at  the  head  waiter.  They 
went  to  the  proprietor  and  stormed  around  so  that 
the  poor  fellow  lost  his  job  —  as  he  said  he  would. 
But  Vanderbilt  made  it  right  by  taking  him  into 
his  employ. 

I  decided  to  meet  the  Commodore's  offer  of  peace. 
Not  that  I  felt  any  great  love  towards  him.  He  had 
been  calling  me  all  kinds  of  names  during  my  stay 
in  Jersey  —  said  I  was  no  better  than  a  batter 
pudding;  that  I  would  turn  tail  on  my  partners 
any  time  he  wanted  me  to;  that  I  had  no  backbone 
and  such-like.  And  whilst  I  was  starting  rumours 
about  him  through  Wall  Street,  in  return  for  the 
mean  things  he  was  doing  to  me,  he  up  and  said  to 
friends,  "This  Erie  war  has  taught  me  that  it  never 
pays  to  kick  a  skunk."  It  hurt  me  considerable 
when  these  remarks  of  his  came  to  my  ears.  I  had 
half  a  mind  to  resent  them.  But  I  now  concluded 
to  forgive  him.  He  didn't  know  me,  that  is  all; 
he  said  those  hard  things  about  me  ignorantly.  I 
decided  I'd  go  over  and  see  him.  But  I  would  do 
it  on  a  Sunday.  Because  on  that  day  process-servers 
can't  ply  their  trade.  During  those  twenty-four 
hours,  those  who  are  hounded  by  the  law  have  a 
day  of  freedom  —  neither  the  sheriff  nor  his  depu 
ties  can  touch  you. 

So  when  Sunday  came  I  set  out  from  the  hotel, 
supposedly  for  an  afternoon's  walk.     When  I  was 


268         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

out  of  sight  I  changed  my  course,  and  slipped  over 
to  New  York.  I  found  Vanderbilt  at  his  house  on 
what  used  to  be  the  Potter's  Field,  but  was  now 
called  Washington  Square.  It  was  a  fine  big  house, 
red  brick  with  white  trimmings.  I  was  very  cordial 
in  my  greetings  to  him.  I  thought  it  best  to  show 
a  friendly  spirit  and  act  as  though  nothing  had 
come  between  us. 

"How  do,  Commodore/'  said  I,  and  I  grasped 
him  by  the  hand.  "The  sight  of  you  is  good  for 
sore  eyes/' 

"Come  in,"  said  he.  He  was  short  as  pie  crust. 
I  saw  that  those  convertible  bonds  were  sticking  in 
his  gizzard.  But  I  made  up  my  mind  that  I'd  keep 
sweet,  anyhow,  let  him  be  miffed  as  much  as  he 
pleased. 

"You've  got  a  fine  house  here,  Commodore," 
I  remarked,  sitting  down  in  an  easy-chair  and  cross 
ing  my  legs  in  a  friendly  sort  of  a  way.  "It  beats 
all  creation  how  this  city  is  a-growing.  Why,  back 
in  my  *  Bull's  Head'  days,  this  here  place  where 
you've  got  your  fine  house  used  to  be  called  Shin- 
bone  Alley  —  the  graves  around  here  were  as  thick 
as  bugs  on  a  pumpkin  vine.  Those  were  great  old 
days,  anyhow.  I  often  think  of  the  times  when 
you  and  I  were  in  the  steamboat  business  together." 

But  Vanderbilt  puckered  up  tighter  than  choke- 
cherries.  "Now  see  here,"  said  he;  "let's  don't 
get  gushy.  Of  course  I'd  like  to  be  affectionate 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW         269 

and  chat  with  you  about  old  times.  No  one  knows 
how  my  bowels  yearn  after  you,  Drew.  But  as  I 
understand  it,  this  is  a  business  interview.  So,  if 
you'll  wipe  that  tobacco  juice  off  your  chin  and 
draw  up  here  to  the  table,  we'll  talk."  I  wiped  my 
chin  and  drew  up  close  to  the  table.  We  talked 
the  thing  over. 

We  didn't  come  to  any  settlement  at  that  time. 
When  a  great  war  has  been  waging,  the  first  time 
the  two  sides  meet  for  a  conference,  about  all  they 
can  do  is  to  shake  hands  and  become  friends  once 
more.  That  is  enough  for  one  interview.  The 
details  of  the  treaty  of  peace  are  settled  in  a  second 
conference.  So  now  with  us.  We  talked  the  thing 
over  in  a  general  way  and  decided  that  it  was  better 
to  be  at  peace  with  each  other  than  to  be  fighting. 
Anyhow,  I  was  then  in  no  frame  of  mind  to  go  into 
the  matter  in  cool  and  careful  fashion.  I  was  on 
pins  and  needles.  I  was  all  the  time  looking  at 
the  clock  to  see  if  I  could  be  sure  of  getting  back  on 
Jersey  soil  before  twelve  o'clock  midnight.  Because 
my  freedom  would  expire  at  that  time.  If  I  allowed 
myself  to  be  caught  napping,  Vanderbilt  might  have 
a  process-server  in  hiding,  and  nab  me.  So  we 
appointed  a  time  for  another  conference.  I  bid 
the  Commodore  good  night,  hastened  to  the  ferry, 
and  got  back  onto  Jersey  soil  before  the  Sabbath 
came  to  an  end. 

I   was   glad   that   a  treaty  of  peace  was  in  sight. 


270         THE  BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

It  had  been  almost  a  month  now  since  our  move 
to  Jersey,  and  I  had  got  heartily  sick  of  it.  Besides, 
there  was  another  side  to  the  thing.  During  the 
legislative  contest  which  we  were  waging  in  Albany, 
each  turn  in  the  tide  of  fortune  up  there  had  been 
followed  by  hundreds  of  speckilators  in  Wall  Street, 
to  take  advantage  of  the  turns  in  Erie  stock  which 
the  rumours  from  Albany  caused.  One  day  it 
would  be  noised  abroad  that  Vanderbilt  was  sure 
to  win;  and  Erie  would  go  up.  Then  a  day  or  two 
after  it  would  be  reported:  "Uncle  Dan'l  and  his 
crowd  have  got  control  of  the  Senate;  they  are 
going  to  pass  their  bill,  and  rivet  their  hold  on  the 
Erie  Railroad  forever."  Whereupon  Erie  shares 
would  go  down.  Thus  outsiders  were  getting  just 
as  much  speckilative  advantage  in  Wall  Street  as 
we  were,  because  their  guesses  as  to  the  outcome 
at  Albany  were  as  good  as  ours.  We  insiders  didn't 
have  any  better  chance  than  they. 

I  began  to  see  that  it  is  poor  policy  for  big  men 
in  Wall  Street  to  fight  each  other.  When  I  am  fight 
ing  a  money  king,  even  my  victories  are  dangersome. 
Take  the  present  situation.  I  had  scooped  a  fine 
profit  out  of  this  Erie  deal,  and  it  was  for  the  most 
part  in  solid  cash.  But  —  and  here  was  the  trouble 
-  it  had  all  come  out  of  one  man,  Vanderbilt. 
Naturally  it  had  left  him  very  sore.  And  being  so 
powerful,  he  was  able  to  fight  back.  As  has  been 
seen,  he  did  fight  back.  He  had  put  me  and  my 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          271 

party  to  a  lot  of  inconvenience.  That  always  hap 
pens  when  you  take  money  from  a  man  on  your 
own  level.  On  the  other  hand,  if  I  had  taken  these 
profits  from  outsiders,  it  would  in  the  aggregate 
have  amounted  to  the  same  sum.  But  the  losers 
would  have  been  scattered  all  over  the  whole  country 
and  so  wouldn't  have  been  able  to  get  together  and 
hit  back.  A  thousand  dollars  of  my  total  profits 
would  have  come  then  out  of  a  lumber  merchant, 
say  in  Oshkosh;  five  hundred  dollars  from  a  coal 
dealer  in  New  Haven;  eight  hundred  dollars  from 
an  undertaker  in  Poughkeepsie;  a  thousand  dollars 
or  two  from  a  doctor  in  Syracuse;  and  so  on,  here 
a  little  and  there  a  little. v  Many  drops  of  water 
make  the  mighty  ocean,  and  many  small  profits, 
added  together,  make  the  big  profit.  Thus,  by 
making  my  money  from  people  on  the  outside,  an 
insider  like  myself  could  make  just  as  much  in  the 
long  run,  and  not  raise  up  any  one  enemy  powerful 
enough  to  cause  him  discomfort. 

So,  as  the  time  for  the  conference  with  Vanderbilt 
drew  nigh,  I  made  plans  to  be  there  good  and  punc 
tual.  I  thought  it  best  to  go  there  alone.  Gould 
and  Fisk  would  probably  want  so  much  for  them 
selves,  when  it  came  to  a  settlement  with  Vanderbilt, 
that  I  was  afraid,  if  they  were  there  too,  the  thing 
wouldn't  go  off  smooth.  We  had  set  the  conference 
for  the  home  of  Ex-Judge  Pierrepont.  Gould  and 
Fisk  knew  that  something  was  in  the  wind.  So, 


272          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

in  order  to  put  their  heads  in  a  bag,  I  made  believe 
that  I  was  going  to  let  them  be  a  party  to  the  affair. 

"When  the  final  settlement  is  made,  you  must 
be  there,"  said  I. 

"You  bet  your  giblets  we'll  be  there,"  Jimmy 
remarked.  "Won't  we,  Jay?"  Jay  grinned  and 
said  he'd  try  to  make  it  convenient  to  attend.  "  Don't 
get  the  kink  in  your  head,"  Jimmy  added,  "that 
you're  going  to  see  the  Commodore  alone  when  it 
comes  to  dividing  up  the  swag." 

I  saw  from  this  that  I  was  going  to  have  a  job  on 
my  hands  to  get  the  thing  fixed  up  without  their 
knowing  it.  So  I  hit  upon  a  scheme.  On  the 
night  of  the  conference  I  made  the  appointment 
with  Fisk  and  Gould,  but  I  fixed  it  at  the  Fifth 
Avenue  Hotel  in  New  York.  Then  when  we  started 
over  I  made  an  excuse  and  said  for  them  to  go  on 
up  to  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel  ahead  and  wait  for 
me.  They  agreed,  and  started  off.  I  then  skipped 
over  by  another  way,  and  went  to  the  house  of  Judge 
Pierrepont. 

I  was  glad  to  find  that  Vanderbilt  had  kept  the 
appointment.  We  went  into  Pierrepont's  drawing- 
room,  drew  up  around  the  table  and  were  soon 
busy  with  our  treaty  of  peace. 

"Now  let's  understand  one  thing  first  of  all," 
said  Vanderbilt.  "This  ten-million  batch  of  Erie 
that  I've  paid  good  money  for,  has  got  to  be  taken 
off  my  hands.  So,  Drew,  set  your  wits  to  that  end 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW         273 

of  the  thing  first.  Otherwise,  there  won't  be  any 
settlement."  I  told  him  I  thought  it  could  be  done. 
I'd  take  the  money  from  the  Erie  treasury  and  use 
it  to  pay  him  for  the  stock  he  had  bought  of  me. 

Vanderbilt  replied  that  it  was  none  of  his  business 
where  the  money  came  from,  so  long  as  he  got  it. 
We  were  getting  along  in  the  conference  fine  as 
anything.  When  suddenly  the  front-door  bell  rang. 
Fisk  and  Gould  walked  in.  Pierrepont  went  out 
into  the  hall  to  meet  them.  Gould  engaged  Pierre 
pont  in  conversation.  Jimmy  edged  over  towards 
the  drawing-room  door  and  suddenly  bust  in  on  us. 
He  was  in  high  spirits,  as  usual.  He  took  on  as 
though  he  was  mighty  glad  to  see  me. 

"Hello,  Uncle,"  said  he;  "put  her  there!  Can't 
tell  how  glad  I  am  to  find  you  here.  Jay  and  I 
were  afraid  we  might  not  be  able  to  get  here  in  time. 
We  waited  down  at  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  but  in 
some  way  or  other  missed  you  down  there.  Then 
the  man  whom  we  had  set  to  follow  you  came  and 
said  that  you  were  up  here  at  Pierrepont's  house, 
and  spoke  as  though  you  wanted  us.  So  we  set 
aside  everything  else  and  have  come.  Hope  we 
can  be  of  some  assistance  in  drawing  up  a  treaty  of 
peace  with  our  honoured  adversary  here."  Vander 
bilt  broke  out  in  a  loud  roar  of  laughter.  I  wasn't 
in  any  mood  to  join  him.  I  didn't  feel  at  all  like 
laughing.  I  tried  not  to  show  it,  but  the  truth  is, 
I  was  very  much  put  out.  They  had  bust  in  on  me 


274          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

just  at  a  time  when  the  thing  was  going  smooth 
as  anything. 

However,  I  made  the  best  of  it.  I  told  them  that 
I  had  been  planning  to  look  out  for  their  interests, 
whether  they  had  come  or  not.  I  hadn't  thought 
it  necessary  to  invite  them  to  this  particular  confer 
ence,  because  often  the  early  stages  of  a  negotiation 
can  be  handled  better  by  one  person  acting  for  all, 
than  by  them  acting  for  themselves.  But  that  was 
no  matter  now.  If  they  chose  to  be  present,  as  far  as 
I  was  concerned,  they  were  welcome.  We  made  places 
for  them  at  the  table,  and  got  once  more  to  work. 

"This  is  where  we'd  got  to,"  said  Vanderbilt. 
"The  nine  million  dollars  worth  of  stock  that  was 
saddled  onto  me  is  to  be  bought  back,  and  we're 
going  to  call  the  thing  quits." 

"But  where  is  that  nine  millions  to  come  from  ?" 
asked  Jimmy. 

"Why,  Drew  here  says  he  proposes  to  take  it 
out  of  the  Erie  treasury." 

Jimmy  gave  a  long  whistle  of  astonishment.  "  By 
the  Lord  Almighty!"  said  he,  "that's  a  corker. 
Commodore,  I'm  an  ungodly  man.  Wall  Street 
sucks  the  conscience  out  of  a  fellow,  anyway;  and 
I  don't  know  as  I  had  any  large  amount  of  it  even 
before  I  went  there.  But  there  are  some  things  that 
even  I  can't  stand  for.  And  this  almighty  robbery 
of  Drew's  against  the  Erie  Railroad  is  one  of  them." 

"I'm  not  saying  anything,  myself,  as  to  the  equity 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          275 

of  this  thing  Drew  proposes,"  said  Vanderbilt. 
"It's  none  of  my  business,  anyway.  In  these  matters 
every  man  must  chew  his  own  meat.  But,  however 
you  arrange  it,  some  way  has  got  to  be  found  for 
taking  this  dirty  batch  of  stock  off  my  hands,  or 
by  the  Lord  God,  I'll  hound  you  curs  from  now  to 
Kingdom  Come." 

to 

I  tried  to  persuade  Jay  and  Jimmy  to  consent 
to  the  plan.  I  showed  them  how  they  had  made 
some  money  in  their  short  sales.  And  though,  of 
course,  they  wouldn't  be  cleaning  up  so  much  on  this 
deal  as  I,  still  I  was  older;  they  had  lots  of  time  yet. 
I  told  them  I  couldn't  stand  it  much  longer  at  Tay 
lor's  Hotel.  Those  quarters  were  so  cramped, 
compared  to  what  I'd  been  used  to,  I  felt  about 
as  comfortable  there  as  three  in  a  bed.  A  man  at 
my  age,  I  told  them,  needs  to  be  home  and  enjoy 
his  friends.  I  pleaded  with  them  until  well  on 
towards  midnight. 

At  last  Jay  spoke  up.  He  had  been  silent  a 
good  share  of  the  evening.  He  never  was  much 
of  a  fellow  to  talk,  anyhow.  I  used  to  wish  I  could 
be  silent  like  him,  for  it's  the  still  hog  that  eats  the 
most.  He  now  had  a  few  words  with  Jimmy  on 
the  side.  As  soon  as  it  was  over  he  spoke  up;  Jay 
took  a  masterful  tone  at  that  moment,  which  I  had 
never  seen  him  take  before.  In  fact,  Gould  was  a 
different  man  from  that  time  on,  a  leader  rather 
than  a  follower. 


276         THE   BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

"Mr.  Vanderbilt,"  said  he;  "we  are  willing  to 
come  to  some  such  arrangement.  We  will  allow 
Drew  here  to  keep  the  profits  he  has  made  in  this 
deal,  and  to  draw  the  money  out  of  the  Erie  treasury. 
But"-  -  and  he  spoke  now  in  so  positive  a  tone  that 
I  had  to  open  my  eyes  to  see  if  it  was  really  the  quiet- 
mannered  Gould  I  had  formerly  known  —  "there's 
got  to  be  one  condition  attached.  Dan  Drew  has 
got  to  get  out  of  the  Erie  Railroad  for  good  and  all." 

I  began  to  speak  up  at  once.  I  didn't  like  the 
idea  of  letting  go  my  hold  on  Erie.  One  of  my 
ideas  in  coming  to  a  settlement  was  that  I  might  get 
back  into  Wall  Street  as  a  railroad  manager  and 
so  as  an  insider.  I  started  to  explain  the  thing. 
But  they  wouldn't  let  me  talk. 

"Now,  see  here,"  broke  in  the  Commodore.  "I 
suppose  I'll  have  to  preside  at  this  meeting.  Your 
arrangements  as  to  the  Erie  Railroad  are  something 
that  don't  exactly  concern  me.  I'm  not  responsible 
for  that  road.  Don't  know  but  what,  all  in  all, 
I  am  just  as  glad  that  I'm  not.  But  we  must  conduct 
this  meeting  in  parliamentary  fashion.  All  in  favour 
of  the  basis  of  settlement  as  just  stated,  namely, 
that  Drew  is  to  be  left  in  possession  of  the  money 
he  has  made  and  himself  to  get  out  of  the  road 
from  this  time  forth  forevermore,  say  'Aye."  And 
then,  "All  opposed  say,  'No.'" 

The  vote  was  put,  and  of  course  I  was  voted  down. 
I  knew  perfectly  well  that  if  it  came  to  counting 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          277 

noses,  I'd  be  out;  and  I  tried  to  get  some  other  way 
of  deciding  it.  But  they  carried  the  day.  A  treaty 
of  peace  was  drawn  up  along  those  lines.  Judge 
Barnard  fined  the  smaller  directors  of  the  Erie 
Company  ten  dollars  each  for  contempt  of  court. 
Us  bigger  fellows  he  let  off  scot  free.  Thus  the 
legal  snarls  and  tangles  were  got  rid  of.  And  the 
war  came  to  an  end. 

After  it  was  settled,  I  was  more  contented  than 
I  had  thought  I  would  be.  My  profits  in  ready 
cash  were  big.  In  this  deal  I  had  certainly  brought 
my  hogs  to  a  fine  market.  To  be  sure  I  had  lost  the 
Erie  Railroad.  That  goose  was  gone  that  had 
laid  for  me  those  big  eggs.  But  with  the  nine  mil 
lions  now  sluiced  off  from  her  treasury,  I  thought 
the  Erie  Road  wasn't  really  a  valuable  enough 
property  to  squabble  over.  Jimmy,  I  guess,  had 
something  of  the  same  feeling. 

"Yes,"  said  he,  as  the  conference  was  coming  to 
a  close,  "the  pirates  have  gone  off  with  the  swag, 
and  have  left  us  nothing  but  the  confounded  hulk." 

"Don't  you  mind,"  said  Jay;  "there  may  be 
some  service  left  in  the  old  vessel  yet." 

"  Drew,"  said  the  Commodore  to  me  as  I  started 
to  leave,  "I  dare  say  you  will  chuckle  a  heap,  with 
that  hen-cackle  of  yours,  over  this  thing  which  you'll 
call  a  victory.  Most  likely  you'll  tell  all  your  friends 
how  you  downed  the  Commodore.  Well,  I  don't 
know  but  what  you  have  downed  me,  after  a  fashion. 


278         THE  BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

But  I  don't  want  you  to  think  it  was  because  I  didn't 
have  money  enough.  If  I  wanted  to,  I  think  I  could 
raise  the  cash  to  buy  your  crowd,  body  and  breeches. 
But  I  confess  that  I  haven't  money  enough  to  buy 
up  that  printing  press  of  yours.  In  the  present 
state  of  our  country's  jurisprudence,  there  doesn't 
seem  to  be  any  limit  to  the  amount  of  certificates 
of  stock  that  you  fellows  can  manufacture  out  of 
white  paper.  I'm  willing  to  own  up,  Drew,  that 
here's  a  case  where  you  fooled  me.  Good  night." 

I  said,  "Good  night,"  and  was  glad  to  be  out 
into  the  street  a  free  man  once  more. 

Anyhow,  Vanderbilt  had  only  himself  to  blame 
for  this  trouble  he  had  got  himself  into.  He  had 
no  call  to  mix  up  in  Erie  matters.  If  he  thought 
I  was  going  to  submit  tamely  and  let  him  push  me 
aside  without  fighting  back,  he  had  the  wrong  sow 
by  the  ears,  that's  all.  The  trouble  with  Vander 
bilt  was,  he  had  an  idea  that  the  law  is  the  highest 
power  in  the  land.  He  now  saw  his  mistake.  He 
never  stopped  to  think  that  law  is  no  such  wonder 
ful  thing  after  all.  Law  is  like  a  cobweb;  it's  made 
for  flies  and  the  smaller  kind  of  insects,  so  to  speak, 
but  lets  the  big  bumblebees  break  through.  I 
showed  him  in  this  affair  that  I  was  the  bumblebee. 
Where  technicalities  of  the  law  stood  in  my  way, 
I  have  always  been  able  to  brush  them  aside  easy 
as  anything.  In  this  Erie  war  we  had  judges  from 
New  York,  Binghamton,  Albany  and  Brooklyn, 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          279 

issuing  contrary  injunctions.  It  has  been  called, 
"The  darkest  scene  in  the  history  of  American 
jurisprudence/'  I  don't  know  anything  as  to  that. 
When  you're  in  business  you  can't  split  hairs,  or 
bother  over  technicalities. 

But,  anyhow,  with  the  settlement  that  had  now 
been  reached,  Vanderbilt  had  been  taken  care  of; 
the  loss  had  been  saddled  on  the  outside  people. 
That  is  always  the  safe  way;  because,  as  I  guess 
I've  already  wrote,  the  outsiders  are  so  numerous 
they  can't  get  together  and  hit  back.  It  must  have 
been  one  of  these  outsiders  who  wrote  a  poem  about 
this  Erie  war.  I  never  thought  much  of  the  poetry 
of  it.  It  has  always  seemed  to  me  no  better  than  a 
string  of  foolish  jesting.  For  my  part  I  like  hymns 
better: 


Cornelius,  the  great  Cornerer, 
A  solemn  oath  he  swore, 
That  in  his  trouser's  pocket  he 
Would  put  one  railroad  more. 
And  when  he  swears  he  means  it, 
The  stout  old  Commodore. 


But  brooding  o'er  the  Erie  sat  — 

In  fact,  on  the  same  lay, 

A  bird  that,  feathering  his  nest, 

Affirmed,  by  yea  and  nay, 

Before  he'd  budge  he'd  see  them  all 

Much  further  than  I'll  say. 


280         THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

Said  he  unto  the  Commodore: 
"Your  bark  is  on  the  sea; 
But  do  not  steer  for  Erie's  isle, 
Since  that's  been  struck  by  me. 
Go,  man  of  sin,  and  leave  me  here 
To  my  theology." 

The  dearest  ties  on  earth  to  some 

Are  plainly  railroad  ties; 

So  little  wonder  that  he  spoke 

In  anger  and  surprise  - 

Tears  would  not  flow;  the  Commodore, 

It  seems,  had  dammed  his  eyes. 

Such  "Erie"  sights,  such  "Erie"  sounds, 

Came  from  this  Erie  crew, 

It  seemed  indeed  a  den  of  lines 

Prepared  for  Daniel  --  Drew; 

Not  strange  that  he  at  last  resolved 

To  make  his  own  adoo. 

Fleeing  from  jars  —  perhaps  the  jug  - 
Dan  looked  to  foreign  lands, 
And  to  his  brethren  said,  "Arise! 
These  Bonds  put  off  our  hands; 
We  will  unto  New  Jersey,  where 
My  Seminary  stands." 

Just  how  the  joust  may  terminate, 

Nobody  knows  or  cares. 

No  need  to  ask  how  fares  the  fight  — 

They'll  ask  us  for  our  fares, 

And  whichever  side  may  win,  will  plow 

The  public  with  its  shares. 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         281 

So  we  will  sing,  Long  live  the  Ring, 

And  Daniel,  long  live  he; 

May  his  high  school  confer  on  him 

Exceeding  high  degree, 

Doubling  his  D's  until,  indeed, 

He  is  D.  D.,  D.  D. 


XXVII 

THAT  "Seminary"  spoken  of  in  the  poem 
was  Drew  Theological  Seminary  in  Madi 
son,  New  Jersey.  My  founding  of  it 
came  about  in  this  way: 

I  had  been  spoken  to  several  times  by  the  preachers 
who  used  to  visit  at  my  house  when  they  came  to 
New  York,  say  during  Conference  week  or  for 
other  occasions,  about  how  fine  it  would  be  to  estab 
lish  a  great  theological  institution.  I  had  let  them 
know  that  I  might  be  willing,  when  the  time  should 
come.  Because  this  was  just  when  the  Civil  War 
was  over.  I  was  then  Treasurer  and  Managing 
Director  of  the  Erie  Railroad,  and  was  making 
money  so  fast  I  could  afford  to  give  some  of  it  away. 

So  one  day  a  couple  of  preachers,  Brother  McClin- 
tock  and  Brother  Crooks,  came  and  saw  me  at  my 
house.  I  knew  what  they  were  coming  for,  and  was 
there  to  meet  them.  It  had- to  be  done  more  or  less 
in  formal  style.  I  let  them  in  and  had  them  take 
seats. 

They  said:  "We  have  come  to  see  what  spirit 
you  are  in,  Brother  Drew,  in  reference  to  the  Cen 
tenary  Movement  that  is  about  to  be  inaugurated. 

282 


THE   BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW         283 

What  offering  are  you  willing  to  make  in  token  of 
your  gratitude  to  God  for  your  connection  with  his 
Church?" 

I  answered  right  up:  "I  am  willing  to  donate 
two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  for  the 
endowment  of  a  Theological  Seminary." 

It  didn't  take  long  to  clinch  the  thing.  After 
five  minutes  the  interview  ended.  I  never  shall 
forget  their  handclasps  and  their  hearty  "God  bless 
you's,"  as  they  said  good-bye  at  the  door. 

We  had  other  interviews.  The  committee  began 
to  suggest  to  me  that  this  would  be  a  great  monument 
to  Daniel  Drew,  if  the  school  should  be  established 
on  a  large  enough  scale.  I  answered  that  when  I 
put  my  hand  to  a  thing,  I  usually  did  it  in  proper 
fashion.  In  fact  I  couldn't  afford  to  have  my  name 
connected  with  any  institution,  if  it  was  to  be  only 
a  one-horse  affair. 

"Supposing  we  should  call  it  'Drew  Theological 
Seminary,'  Brother  Drew?" 

"Why,  brethren,  I  have  just  said  that  if  my  name 
is  going  to  be  attached  to  it  in  so  out-and-out  a  fash 
ion,  I  shall  have  to  take  care  of  the  school  and  see 
it  through,  no  matter  what  it  costs."  So  I  said  I 
would  give,  first,  the  ground  and  buildings.  Second, 
as  the  foundation  of  a  library,  twenty-five  thousand 
dollars.  For  a  permanent  endowment  fund  of  the 
Institution,  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars, 
as  soon  as  the  charter  should  be  secured  the  following 


284         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

winter.  And  I  would  swell  the  amount  finally  to 
half  a  million. 

It  was  so  big  a  gift  that  a  public  meeting  was 
needed  in  order  to  celebrate  it.  They  were  setting 
out  to  raise  a  million  dollars  in  all,  as  a  fund  to 
celebrate  the  one-hundredth  anniversary  of  the 
church  in  America.  The  brethren  felt  it  would 
give  the  whole  movement  for  this  Centenary  Fund 
a  big  boost,  to  announce  right  at  the  start  a  gift  of 
a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  from  me.  So  a  meeting 
was  arranged  to  be  held  in  my  big  church  on  Fourth 
Avenue.  I  looked  forward  with  a  good  deal  of 
pleasure  to  the  time  when  the  gift  was  to  be  pub 
licly  announced. 

Finally  the  night  came  around  —  a  Thursday 
evening,  late  in  January.  It  was  a  stormy  night. 
But  big  preparations  had  been  made  for  the  meeting 
and  the  church  was  filled.  All  our  churches  in  the 
city  had  joined  their  choirs  into  one,  which  now 
filled  the  back  gallery  of  the  church.  A  great  choir 
it  was  —  well-nigh  two  hundred  voices,  I  should 
judge.  The  congregation  was  so  large,  I  said  to 
myself,  "If  the  weather  had  been  fine  to-night,  this 
church  wouldn't  have  begun  to  hold  the  people." 
Brother  Crooks  opened  the  meeting,  since  he  and 
Brother  McClintock  were  the  ones  that  had  seen  me 
in  the  interview  at  my  house.  The  opening  hymn 
was  that  well-known  one,  which  is  so  full  of  praise; 
and  when  the  enormous  choir  began  it,  we  in  the 


THE   BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW         285 

congregation  joined  in  and  there  was  a  volume  of 
sound  that  must  have  reached  to  the  Pearly  Gates. 
I  was  one  of  the  vice-presidents  of  the  meeting,  and 
so  sat  in  the  front  pew.  I'm  not  much  of  a  singer, 
but  I  couldn't  help  joining  in  the  hymn: 

Before  Jehovah's  awful  throne, 
Ye  nations  bow  with  sacred  joy; 
Know  that  the  Lord  is  God  alone; 
He  can  create  and  He  destroy. 

There  was  prayer  by  Dr.  Durbin,  and  an  address 
by  the  chairman  of  the  meeting  —  a  man  from  some- 
wheres  out  West.  Then  another  hymn. 

This  second  hymn  fitted  into  the  present  occasion 
fine.  Because  my  gift  was  to  be  made  a  kind  of 
missionary  agent,  to  coax  gifts  from  other  men  all 
over  the  country: 

See  how  great  a  flame  aspires, 
Kindled  by  a  spark  of  grace. 
Jesus'  love  the  nations  fires, 
Sets  the  kingdoms  on  a  blaze. 

To  bring  fire  on  earth  He  came; 
Kindled  in  some  hearts  it  is. 
Oh,  that  all  might  catch  the  flame, 
All  partake  the  glorious  bliss! 

As  we  got  into  the  hymn  I  felt  as  though  all  eyes 
were  upon  me,  even  though  only  a  few  as  yet  knew 
of  my  offer  of  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars.  I 


286         THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

looked  upon  my  gift  as  a  kind  of  seed,  that  was  not 
only  going  to  do  good  in  itself,  but  was  going  to 
unlock  the  purse-strings  of  other  rich  men: 

When  He  first  the  work  began, 
Small  and  feeble  was  His  day; 
Now  the  word  doth  swiftly  run, 
Now  it  wins  its  widening  ray. 

More  and  more  it  spreads  and  grows, 
Ever  mighty  to  prevail; 
Sin's  strongholds  it  now  overthrows, 
Shakes  the  trembling  gates  of  Hell. 

Saw  ye  not  the  cloud  arise, 
Little  as  a  human  hand  ? 
Now  it  spreads  along  the  skies, 
Hangs  o'er  all  the  thirsty  land; 

Lo!     The  promise  of  a  shower 
Drops  already  from  above; 
But  the  Lord  will  shortly  pour 
All  the  spirit  of  His  love. 

When  the  turn  of  Bishop  James  came  to  speak, 
he  said  that  in  this  Centenary  Celebration  the  author 
ities  had  proposed  that  it  be  not  only  a  spiritual  one, 
but  also  take  a  financial  character.  And  these  two 
features,  the  spiritual  and  the  financial,  were  com 
bined  in  Dr.  McClintock's  speech,  which  closed 
the  evening.  He  went  on  to  show  the  supreme 
importance  of  the  doctrine  of  holiness  in  this  life. 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         287 

"Our  Church,"  said  Brother  McClintock,  "has 
put  forward  as  its  very  elementary  thought,  the  great 
central  pervading  idea  of  the  Holy  Book  of  God 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end:  The  holiness  of 
the  human  soul,  heart,  mind  and  will.  It  might 
be  called  fanaticism,  but,  dear  friends,  that  is  our 
mission.  If  we  keep  to  that,  the  next  century  is 
ours.  If  we  keep  to  that,  the  triumphs  of  the  next 
century  shall  throw  those  that  are  past  far  in  the 
shade.  Our  work  is  a  moral  work.  That  is  to 
say,  the  work  of  making  men  holy.  There  is  our 
mission.  There  is  our  glory.  There  is  our  power." 

Then  he  went  on  to  show  the  importance  of  holi 
ness  in  consecrating  your  pocket-book.  Said  he  — 
and  now  came  the  public  announcement: 

"I  think  it  right  to  say  that  one  of  your  members 
has  set  you  a  noble  example.  I  hope  that  Daniel 
Drew's  life  may  be  spared  to  see  the  erection  of  a 
Theological  Seminary  to  which  he  has  consecrated 
a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars,  and  to  which  he  will 
give  as  much  more  before  it  is  finished.  It  is  a  grand 


start." 


I  wish  I  could  put  it  down  on  paper,  the  applause. 
I  sat  quiet  through  it  all.  But  I  think  I  took  more 
real  joy  out  of  the  joy  of  those  people  when  my  gift 
was  announced,  than  out  of  'most  anything  else  in 
my  life.  I  felt  as  though  I  was  doing  a  work  which 
perhaps  was  bigger  than  even  I  myself  could  realize. 
It  seemed  as  though  I  was  no  longer  just  a  person, 


288         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

but  was  a  great  and  mighty  force,  working  for  my 
fellow  human  beings  throughout  the  wide  world,  for 
all  ages  to  come.  For  the  speaker  went  on: 

"God  has  given  us,  as  you  have  been  told  to-night, 
mighty  power.  We  stand  here  upon  our  eastern 
coast  and  look  over  yonder;  there  is  old  Europe. 
We  stand  upon  our  western  coast  and  look  yonder 
to  the  west,  again,  and  there's  old  Asia.  Asia,  the 
land  of  population.  Europe,  the  land  of  ideas. 
And  America  —  the  land  in  which  population  and 
ideas  are  to  come  together.  Now  think  of  that! 
Here  is  the  field  where  the  prolific  energies  of  the 
Asiatic  life  are  to  be  penetrated  through  and  through 
with  the  sharp  and  living  ideas  of  a  vital  Christian 
civilization.  Are  we  up  to  the  grandeur  of  that 
thought  ? " 

This  was  the  closing  speech.  Of  course  nothing 
but  the  doxology  could  bring  such  a  meeting  to  a 
fit  close.  And  the  swing  which  was  given  to  those 
grand  old  words  will  be  remembered,  I  suppose, 
by  every  one  in  that  congregation: 

Praise  God  from  whom  all  blessing  flow: 
Praise  Him,  all  creatures  here  below; 
Praise  Him  above,  ye  Heavenly  host; 
Praise  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost. 

The  weeks  which  followed  this  meeting  were 
busy  weeks.  They  were  busy  for  me,  because  I 
was  just  getting  into  the  Erie  war  (which  I  have 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          289 

wrote  about).  In  fact  I  was  just  at  that  moment 
in  the  campaign  where  I  broke  the  market  by  dump 
ing  onto  the  Street  those  fifty-eight  thousand  shares, 
when  nobody  thought  that  I  would  dare  do  it.  I  also 
had  my  reelection  to  the  Erie  Board  to  look  after, 
when  Vanderbilt  was  going  to  put  me  out.  The 
campaign  which  terminated  in  the  scampering  to 
Jersey  City  followed. 

They  were  busy  weeks,  also,  for  the  Committee 
of  Preachers  which  had  my  theological  school  in 
charge.  Because  I  put  upon  them  the  work  of 
carrying  out  the  details  of  the  school's  establishment. 
My  first  idea  had  been  to  locate  the  school  at  Carmel. 
I  thought  it  would  be  well  to  sort  of  centre  my 
institutions  in  the  region  where  I  had  first  seen  the 
light  of  day.  But,  to  put  up  new  buildings  would 
take  too  long.  Besides,  a  location  nearer  New  York 
might  be  more  favourable.  Out  at  Perth  Amboy, 
New  Jersey,  was  a  place  called  Eagleswood  School. 
This  had  been  a  boarding  school,  and  I  made  the 
owner  an  offer  for  it.  He  wouldn't  sell  at  the  figure 
I  named. 

My  attention  was  then  called  to  the  old  Gibbons 
estate,  "The  Forest/'  out  at  Madison,  New  Jersey. 
Thomas  Gibbons,  as  I  guess  I  have  wrote,  had  made 
his  home  there.  He  was  the  one  who  owned  the 
steamboat  that  Vanderbilt  had  worked  on  when  he 
came  up  from  Staten  Island.  Gibbons  had  also 
been  the  one  to  fight  the  Fulton-Livingston  monopoly, 


290         THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

which  opened  the  Hudson  River  and  made  my 
entrance  into  the  steamboat  business  possible.  His 
son,  William  Gibbons,  was  now  owner  of  the  estate. 
I  looked  over  the  place.  It  was  in  a  beautiful  part 
of  the  country.  The  town  there  has  since  got  to  be 
known  as  the  "City  of  Roses."  The  country  place 
which  Gibbons  had  built  at  the  Forest  was  large. 
There  was  a  carriage-house,  a  horse-barn,  and  the 
owner's  residence  —  a  big  building  with  six  white 
pillars  in  front.  Gibbons  and  I  dickered  for  awhile. 
We  came  to  terms.  The  money  was  paid  over.  A 
deed  was  secured. 

We  were  in  a  hurry  to  begin  the  school.  So  we 
fitted  up  the  buildings  just  as  they  were.  Gibbons's 
mansion  was  made  into  the  main  hall  of  the  Seminary. 
I  got  it  called  "Mead  Hall"  (after  my  wife's  name, 
before  I  married  her).  The  carriage-  and  horse-barns 
were  fitted  up  for  "dormitories"  -that's  what  the 
professors  called  them;  it  means  places  to  sleep  in. 
And  in  the  month  of  November,  1867,  came  the 
exercises  which  opened  the  school. 


XXVIII 

IT  WAS  a  red-letter  day  in  my  life,  the  day  that 
I  went  out  to   Madison,  N.  J.,  to  attend  the 
opening  of   my    seminary.     All    the   big  men 
of  the    church   were    present.     Great   preparations 
had  been  made  for  the  event.     I  was  the  central 
figure.     But   my  walk   and   conversation   that  day 
were  modest,  as  becomes  a  Christian.     In   fact  my 
church   paper,  in    describing  the  celebration,  used 
these  exact  words: 

Of  all  the  company  present  at  Madison  on  this 
opening  day,  the  most  modest  and  unassuming 
person  was  Mr.  Drew  himself.  A  lady  who 
expressed  a  desire  to  see  the  founder  of  the  Seminary 
was  told  in  our  hearing  that  the  most  unpretentious 
elderly  gentleman  she  saw  would  be  Mr.  Drew. 

The  description  was  perfectly  exact.  Though 
grateful  to  the  church  for  its  recognition  of  the  gift, 
there  is  in  his  manner  no  trace  of  self-consciousness. 
Mr.  Drew  has  been  happy  in  a  great  opportunity, 
and  has  had  the  wisdom  to  use  it  well.  His  example 
will  inspire  our  men  of  means  to  go  forward  in  the 
same  direction. 

It  was  a  Wednesday.     By  ten  o'clock  that  morn- 

291 


292         THE   BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

ing  the  main  street  of  Madison  was  filled  with  people, 
guests  from  nearly  all  the  Eastern  states,  going  to  a 
neighbour  church  which  had  kindly  opened  its 
doors  for  the  services.  At  ten-thirty  the  service 
began.  Dr.  McClintock  gave  out  the  opening 
hymn.  While  it  was  being  sung,  I  couldn't  help 
but  think  of  the  privilege  that  was  mine  in  here 
founding  a  school  that  was  to  send  forth  young  men 
year  by  year  to  build  up  the  walls  of  Zion  and  to 
dispense  the  sincere  milk  of  the  word: 

With  stately  towers  and  bulwarks  strong, 
Unrivall'd  and  alone  - 
Loved  theme  of  many  a  sacred  song  - 
God's  holy  city  shone. 

Thus  fair  was  Zion's  chosen  seat, 
The  glory  of  all  lands; 
Yet  fairer  and  in  strength  complete, 
The  Christian  temple  stands. 

The  faithful  of  each  clime  and  age 
This  glorious  church  compose; 
Built  on  a  rock,  with  idle  rage, 
The  threatening  tempest  blows. 

Fear  not;  though  hostile  bands  alarm, 
Thy  God  is  thy  defence; 
And  weak  and  powerless  every  arm 
Against  Omnipotence. 

Then   the   speakers   began.     Dr.    Johnson,   from 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         293 

Carlyle,  Pa.,  was  one.  He  referred  to  the  little 
group  of  young  men  who  were  forming  the  opening 
class  in  my  Seminary.  He  talked  about  the  kind 
of  training  which  they  ought  to  have.  He  said : 

We  don't  want  them  "to  draw  their  materials 
for  preaching  from  philosophy,  from  science, 
from  anything  outside  of  this  Book  as  its  founda 
tion.  Look  at  that  inventory  of  the  Christian's 
panoply  that  Paul  gives!  While  armed  from  helmet 
to  greaves,  there's  but  one  defensive  weapon,  and 
that  is  the  Sword  of  the  Spirit  which  is  the  Word 
of  God.  We  want  to  be  able  to  wield  this  Sword  of 
the  Spirit  aright.  You  remember  that  John,  in  that 
picture  he  draws  of  the  great  city  that  he  saw  in  his 
vision,  tells  us  that  the  sons  of  God  were  victorious 
through  the  blood  of  the  Lamb.  Now  no  Christian 
warrior  is  qualified  to  fight  until  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb  has  renewed  his  heart.  And  in  connection 
with  the  blood  of  the  Lamb  is  mentioned  the  word 
of  their  testimony.  And  what  is  the  Christian's 
testimony  but  that  of  the  experience  of  the  great 
truths  of  this  Book  which  David  calls  God's  tes 
timonies  ? 

I  couldn't  help  but  feel,  while  those  words  were 
being  spoken,  that  young  men  trained  in  such  truths 
would  become  mighty  powers  in  the  world.  And  I 
was  glad  to  think,  as  I  looked  upon  that  band  of 
young  men,  that  I  was  the  one  who  was  making  it 
possible  for  them  to  go  forth  as  tongues  of  fire  in 
the  midst  of  a  dark  world. 


294         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

If  I  was  inclined  at  that  moment  to  forget  my 
modesty  just  a  little,  I  don't  know  but  what  I  really 
did  forget  it  when  the  last  speaker  on  the  morning's 
programme,  Dr.  North,  got  up.  After  expressing 
his  admiration  for  the  beautiful  scene  which  we  were 
there  enacting,  he  said  that  other  gifts  from  other 
rich  men  were  also  greatly  needed.  Then,  with  an 
outburst,  he  exclaimed: 

"Oh,  that  we  had  one  more  Daniel  Drew!" 

This  closed  the  morning's  exercises.  I  have  wrote 
about  the  thing  in  full,  because  it  was  an  historic 
occasion.  Not  that  I  remember  out  of  my  head  all 
the  words  that  were  spoken  and  the  things  that  were 
done.  It's  all  here  before  me,  in  clippings  from 
my  New  York  Christian  Advocate. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  morning  exercises,  we 
repaired,  several  hundred  strong,  to  the  Seminary 
grounds,  a  short  distance  west  of  the  village,  where, 
in  the  edifice  heretofore  known  as  the  Forest  Hill 
Mansion,  and  now  lavishly  reconstructed,  the  guests 
found,  in  the  room  which  is  henceforth  to  be  the 
chapel,  a  sumptuous  entertainment  provided  by  my 
liberality  for  their  refreshment,  and  beneath  whose 
savoury  burden  the  tables  literally  groaned;  while 
others  were  as  bounteously  provided  for  in  the  town 
hall,  turned,  for  the  time  being,  into  a  tastefully 
garlanded  refectory.  (Refectory  means  a  place  to 
eat.)  After  doing  ample  justice  to  the  viands  now 
spread  before  them  in  prodigal  profusion,  the  visi- 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         295 

tors,  many  of  them  distinguished  divines  who  had 
come  from  afar  to  grace  the  occasion  with  their 
presence,  and  whose  eloquence  signalized  the  inaugu 
ral  and  has  made  the  event  memorable,  were  invited 
to  examine  the  buildings  and  ground,  to  which 
they  promptly  responded,  and  concluded  their 
inspection  with  the  most  unbounded  admiration 
of  the  premises,  profuse  felicitations  to  the 
donor,  and  unqualified  approbation  of  the  judg 
ment  of  him  and  his  advisors  in  the  selection  they 
had  made. 

In  fact,  the  meal  that  day  wasn't  any  of  your 
nose-bag  feeds  —  no  snatch-and-go  kind  of  a  thing. 
We  had  moved  tables  into  the  big  room  of  what  had 
been  old  Tom  Gibbons's  house.  The  meal  was  a 
rib-tickler.  A  restaurant  man  had  been  hired  for 
the  occasion.  He  had  got  orders  from  me  to  put  up 
as  costly  victuals  as  he  could  find,  and  send  the  bill 
to  me.  And  now,  as  I  looked  over  the  crowd,  and 
saw  them  stowing  the  good  things  away  under  their 
belts,  I  was  glad  I  hadn't  been  stingy  in  the  matter. 
I  remembered  how,  in  my  old  drover  days,  I  used 
to  get  hungry  enough  sometimes  to  drink  pig's  milk. 
We  didn't  have  any  such  viands  as  these  to  eat,  back 
in  those  days. 

The  exercises  in  the  afternoon  began  at  half- 
past  two.  This  wasn't  a  Sunday.  Yet  the  ser 
vices  were  almost  like  what  they  are  on  a  Lord's 
Day.  We  started  off  by  singing  that  hymn  which 


296         THE   BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

is  so  fit  when  young  men  are  setting  forth  into  the 
beautiful  life  of  the  Christian  ministry: 

Go,  preach  my  Gospel,  saith  the  Lord; 
Bid  the  whole  world  my  grace  receive; 
He  shall  be  saved  who  trusts  my  word, 
And  he  condemned  who  won't  believe. 

I'll  make  your  great  commission  known, 
And  ye  shall  prove  my  gospel  true, 
By  all  the  works  that  I  have  done, 
By  all  the  wonders  ye  shall  do. 

Teach  all  the  nations  my  commands  - 
I'm  with  you  till  the  world  shall  end; 
All  power  is  trusted  in  my  hands  - 
I  can  destroy  and  I  defend. 

Philip  Phillips  was  there,  and  sang  in  a  sweet 
voice:  "There  Will  Be  No  More  Sorrow  There." 
In  the  morning  he  had  also  helped  out  with  his 
beautiful  hymn:  "I'll  Sing  for  Jesus."  After  the 
solo,  Dr.  McClintock  made  a  speech  in  which  he 
told  about  the  school  and  its  plans.  Said  he: 

The  full  extent  of  Mr.  Drew's  gift  was  not 
announced  at  the  beginning.  He  is  one  of  those  men 
who  do  more  than  they  promise.  You  should  know 
that  he  founded  a  Young  Ladies'  Academy  at  Carmel. 
That  gift  was  entirely  apart  from  and  in  addition 
to  the  Centenary  gift  involved  in  the  Theological 
Seminary.  What  will  be  the  extent  of  these  two 


THE   BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW         297 

donations,  I  do  not  know.  This  much  I  do  know, 
that  Mr.  Drew  is  not  in  the  habit  of  putting  his 
hands  to  any  object  and  letting  it  go  unfinished  or 
half  accomplished. 

When  he  finished,  I  felt  that  even  if  I  hadn't  been 
of  a  mind  to  help  the  school  in  a  big  way,  I  ought 
to  do  it  now. 

Dr.  Porter  represented  the  Newark  Conference 
at  the  exercises.  The  announcement  of  the  "Drew 
Theological  Seminary,"  he  said,  had  made  his  heart 
leap  for  joy.  He  was  persuaded  that  God  in  his 
providence  was  leading  the  Church  to  adopt  those 
measures  and  take  steps  from  time  to  time  that  were 
calculated  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  the  times  and 
advance  the  interests  of  His  cause.  He  added  that 
it  was  the  mission  of  the  Church  to  arouse  the  public 
mind  with  regard  to  experimental  and  practical 
religion,  and  this  it  had  done. 

Dr.  Cummings  was  there,  from  Middletown,  Ct. 
His  words  were  even  more  personal.  Said  he: 

Among  the  thoughts  that  have  suggested  them 
selves  to  my  mind  to-day  is  that  of  the  noble 
illustration  exhibited  on  this  occasion  of  the  Chris 
tian  use  of  money.  We  know  that  men  often 
give  liberally  for  worthy  objects,  and  yet  the  influ 
ence  of  that  gift  is  transient.  It  accomplishes  a 
good  work,  but  it  lacks  the  element  of  permanency 
in  its  influence.  The  history  of  educational  insti 
tutions  is,  in  this  respect,  remarkably  encouraging. 


298         THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

Nothing  can  be  nobler  than  to  give  the  funds  and 
moneys  which  God  himself  has  bestowed. 

I  wish  I  could  give  more  of  his  talk.  It  was  a  very 
good  speech.  It  made  me  better  acquainted  with 
his  college  up  there  in  Connecticut;  and  I  have 
helped  it  out  also  with  some  money. 

The  speech  of  Bishop  Janes  was  one  that  I  thought 
must  do  the  young  students  for  the  ministry  a  lot  of 
good.  In  fact,  they  were  words  that  everybody 
ought  to  lay  to  heart.  He  said: 

I  assume  that  all  the  young  men  who  come 
here  for  the  advantages  of  this  institution  will 
be  Christian  young  men;  that,  having  received  the 
grace  of  repentance  they  have  been  justified  by 
faith  and  regenerated  by  Divine  Grace.  I  assume, 
also,  that  they  have  been  led  to  feel  in  their  own 
minds  that  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to 
take  upon  them  the  work  and  office  of  the  Chris 
tian  pastorate;  that  they  don't  take  upon  themselves 
this  honour,  but  are  called  to  it  of  God,  as  was  Aaron. 
I  also  assume  that  the  church  has  been  convinced 
of  the  correctness  of  the  convictions  by  their  natural 
gifts  and  Christian  graces  and  the  unction  attend 
ing  their  religious  exercises,  and  has  recommended 
them  to  the  travelling  connection  for  pastoral  work. 

Now,  with  these  assumptions,  I  ask,  what  is 
necessary  for  these  young  men  ?  Knowledge  and 
discipline.  They  are  ambassadors  of  God.  It 
is,  therefore,  all-important  that  they  have  a  know 
ledge  of  God,  of  His  mind,  of  His  will,  of  His  relation 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         299 

to  us,  and  especially  of  His  mind  and  will  concern 
ing  our  salvation.  It  is  necessary  that  they  should 
understand  human  character,  the  condition  of  the 
human  mind  and  the  human  heart,  the  passions, 
affections,  aspirations,  desires  and  purposes  of 
men. 

Now  our  discipline  says  that  we  are  to  read 
the  Bible  and  such  books  as  help  to  a  knowledge 
of  the  same;  and  the  original  languages  of  the  Scrip 
tures  may  be  important  to  us  in  learning  these 
things,  in  giving  us  the  different  shades  of  mean 
ing  and  enabling  us  more  perfectly  to  understand 
our  translation  of  the  word  of  God.  Now,  having 
this  knowledge  of  God  and  man,  we  need  drilling. 
We  propose  to  train  our  young  men  in  the  camp. 
We  expect  men  here  trained  to  fight  in  the  skir 
mishes  of  the  Lord  or  to  lead  a  forlorn  hope.  Our 
Government  doesn't  send  men  to  West  Point  to  pre 
pare  them  to  carry  the  musket,  but  expects  every 
man  to  be  an  officer.  And  in  the  education  of  men 
here,  we  don't  expect  those  who  go  from  this  institu 
tion  simply  to  stand  in  the  rank  and  file  of  Imman- 
uel's  Army.  We  expect  every  man  to  be  competent 
to  be  a  leader  and  lead  forward  God's  sacramental 
hosts,  and  to  lead  onward  and  onward,  until  all 
the  cohorts  of  error  are  driven  from  the  world,  and 
the  standard  of  Immanuel  is  triumphant  over  all 
lands.  And  I  charge  the  founder  of  this  institution 
and  the  trustees  and  faculty  to  see  to  it  that  the 
young  men  under  their  care  are  not  only  informed, 
but  disciplined  and  drilled,  until  ready  for  camp  or 
field. 

I  call  upon  the  authorities  of  this  institution  to 
see  that  this  place  is  our  Jerusalem,  where  the 


3oo         THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

young  men  who  tarry  here  shall  be  indued  with 
power  from  on  high  and  go  forth  in  the  name  and 
strength  of  God  to  subdue  this  world  to  His  author 
ity.  I  now  invoke  the  benediction  of  God  upon 
our  beloved  brother,  whose  munificence  has  brought 
us  together  on  this  occasion.  And  I  pray  that 
God  may  command  His  blessings  upon  those  who, 
from  time  to  time,  enjoy  its  advantages.  That, 
being  themselves  blessed  by  it,  they  may  be  made 
a  blessing  to  mankind. 

The  last  speaker  was  Dr.  Allen  of  Girard  College. 
He  spoke  more  or  less  off-hand.  But  his  words 
were  full  of  meat: 

If  there  has  ever  been  any  prejudice  in  our 
church  against  our  men  of  wealth,  the  donations 
of  Mr.  Drew  would  do  much  to  cause  it  to  disappear 
and  to  vanish  forever.  The  church  needs  the  money 
of  its  wealthy  men.  If  more  of  them  would  give 
according  to  their  means,  as  our  worthy  friend  has 
given,  no  doubt  this  prejudice  would  entirely  cease. 
I  will  only  add  that,  in  speaking  of  the  eminent 
founder  of  this  institution,  we  fear  him  not  as  a  rich 
man.  If  my  classical  friend,  Dr.  McClintock,  will 
allow  me,  I  will  put  a  negative  in  a  classical  des 
cription  Virgil  once  used: 

"  Non  timeo  Danaos  dona  ferentes" 

(Those  words  tacked  onto  the  tail  end  there,  are 
from  one  of  the  dead  languages.  I  don't  just  remem 
ber  now  what  it  was  that  some  one  told  me  they 


THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         301 

meant.     But  it  was  something  like:  "A  man  is  not 
dangersome,  if  he  brings  a  gift.") 

With  the  benediction,  the  services  which  opened 
Drew  Theological  Seminary  came  to  an  end.  I 
came  away  feeling,  in  the  words  of  the  benediction, 
the  peace  of  God  which  passeth  all  understanding. 
The  New  York  Christian  Advocate  said:  "We 
most  heartily  congratulate  the  munificent  founder 
and  patron  of  the  new  seminary  in  view  of  its  pro 
pitious  inauguration,  and  also  upon  its  fortunate 
location  and  the  highly  commodious  buildings  and 
ample  grounds  in  which  the  nascent  'school  of  the 
prophets'  begins  its  career." 


XXIX 

I  WAS  glad  that  the  opening  of  my  theological 
School  came  just  when  it  did.  Because 
it  fitted  into  a  niche  in  the  year's  work  when 
I  had  the  time  to  attend  it.  If,  instead  of  coming 
in  November,  it  had  come  two  months  earlier,  it 
would  have  found  me  right  in  the  midst  of  my 
dicker  to  get  back  into  the  Director's  Board  and 
Treasuryship  of  the  Erie  Road.  And  if  it  had  come 
three  months  later,  it  would  have  found  me  in  the 
midst  of  the  war  with  the  Commodore.  Maybe, 
just  at  the  time  when  the  opening  services  were 
being  held,  it  would  have  found  me  at  Taylor's 
Hotel.  Of  course,  in  that  latter  case  I  could  have 
gone  to  Madison,  it  being  also  outside  of  York 
State's  jurisdiction.  Still,  it  would  have  been  incon 
venient  for  me;  because  those  weeks  at  "Fort  Taylor" 
were  weeks  of  so  much  distress  of  mind,  that  I  couldn't 
have  entered  into  the  spirit  of  the  inaugural  occasion 
as  I  felt  it  deserved. 

These  were  months,  anyhow,  in  which  I  was  hard 
pushed  by  business  cares.  Just  when  the  first  year 
of  my  Theological  Seminary  was  drawing  to  a  close, 
a  bad  accident  happened  on  the  Erie  Road,  which 

302 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          303 

enemies  tried  to  lay  at  my  door.  An  express  train 
was  coming  along  from  the  West  one  night.  It  had 
made  the  trip  safely  until  it  got  to  Cam's  Rock, 
some  sixteen  miles  west  of  Port  Jervis.  The  road 
at  that  point  is  cut  into  the  side  of  a  precipice,  over 
hanging  a  gorge.  It  was  the  last  place  where  a  rail 
road  treasurer  would  like  to  have  an  accident. 
As  bad  luck  would  have  it,  just  at  that  point  is 
where  the  accident  took  place. 

As  the  train  was  rushing  along  in  the  darkness 
of  the  early  morning,  the  wheels  in  some  way  got  off 
the  rails  and  four  cars  were  hurled  down  the  embank 
ment.  They  dropped  eighty  feet  to  the  bottom 
and  were  crushed  into  a  tangled  mass.  Twenty- 
two  people  were  killed,  and  all  the  survivors  mangled. 
The  rear  car  was  a  sleeping  coach.  This  was  so 
smashed  that  the  passengers  inside  couldn't  get  out. 
It  caught  on  fire,  and  the  people  were  burned  alive. 
The  shrieks  of  the  passengers  as  they  tried  to  get  out 
of  the  burning  car,  were  described  in  the  newspapers 
the  next  day.  Public  feeling  was  aroused.  The 
people  out  around  Port  Jervis  held  an  indignation 
meeting.  They  got  up  an  investigation  to  find  out 
the  cause  of  the  "murder,"  as  they  called  it.  They 
seemed  to  think  that  some  of  us  who  were  at  the  head 
of  the  road  had  set  about  to  kill  those  poor  passen 
gers  intentionally.  It  was  the  most  unheard-of 
charge  that  a  man  ever  had  to  stand  up  against. 
So  I  was  glad  when  the  investigation  committee  had 


304          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

got  through  and  made  its  report.  Because  then 
it  was  seen  very  clearly  that  the  horrible  thing 
wasn't  a  "murder"  at  all,  but  had  happened  just  by 
accident. 

However,  I  was  not  altogether  pleased  at  the  way 
this  committee  worded  its  report.  I  had  tried  to 
give  out  to  the  public  that  the  accident  had  been 
caused  by  the  spring  rains,  and  by  the  softening  of  the 
road-bed,  due  to  the  winter's  frost  coming  out  of  the 
ground,  causing  the  rails  to  spread  under  the  weight 
of  the  engine.  But  the  coroner's  report  said  that  the 
accident  was  due  to  the  rotten  condition  of  the  rails. 
It  said  that  an  inspection  of  the  track  at  that 
point  had  showed  that  some  of  the  rails  had 
been  used  so  long  that  they  were  worn  to  rags. 
This  increased  the  public  clamour.  The  investiga 
tion  went  on  further  and  dug  up  unpleasant 
points  in  connection  with  my  management  of  the 
road. 

The  truth  is,  I  had  been  obliged  for  some  time  back 
to  scrimp  expenses  on  the  road-bed.  The  superin 
tendent  of  that  department  had  been  pestering  me 
for  a  long  time  back,  because  of  the  "worn-out  and 
rotten  condition  of  the  rails,"  as  he  put  it.  He  was 
a  faithful  fellow,  one  who  took  the  welfare  of  the  road 
very  much  to  heart.  But  he  was  for  improvements, 
no  matter  what  the  cost.  I  had  the  financial  end 
to  look  after.  New  rails  for  five  hundred  miles  of 
road-bed  cost  a  sum  of  money  which  track  foremen 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         305 

haven't  big  enough  minds  to  grasp.  I  was  con 
stantly  more  put  to  it  than  the  Erie  workmen  had 
any  idea  of,  to  keep  the  road  even  in  as  good  a  con 
dition  as  it  was.  It  is  true  that  I  had  got  the  direc 
tors  of  the  road  several  times  to  vote  to  borrow 
money  for  buying  steel  rails  to  replace  the  worn-out 
iron  rails.  But  I  had  invariably  found,  as  soon  as 
the  money  was  raised,  that  I  needed  it  in  my  stock- 
market  operations.  However,  I  wanted  to  keep  the 
road  up.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  had  told  the  super 
intendent  of  road-beds  to  go  ahead  and  order  new 
rails  —  had  given  my  full  authority  for  the  pur 
chase.  But,  unfortunately,  the  manufacturer  of 
rails  sent  the  order  back  unhonoured  —  said  that 
our  last  purchase  hadn't  been  paid  for  as  yet,  and 
he  wasn't  going  to  send  any  more  until  we  paid  for 
those  we  already  had.  So,  as  the  next  best  thing, 
I  had  got  the  old  rails  taken  up  and  turned.  A 
train  wears  out  the  inside  of  the  rail  more  than  the 
outside,  because  the  flange  of  the  wheel  rubs  against 
the  inside  edge.  I  figured  that  to  have  the  rails 
turned  was  the  next  best  thing  to  getting  new  rails 
altogether. 

That's  the  long  and  short  of  the  whole  thing.  I 
got  lots  of  blame  at  the  time  for  the  killing  of  those 
poor  people,  and  for  their  burning  alive  in  that  sleep 
ing  car.  So  I  want  to  state  my  side  of  the  case. 
The  New  York  Advocate  was  very  considerate 
and  charitable  towards  me.  But  Harper  s  Weekly 


3o6         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

came  out  against  me  and  my  fellow  operators  of  the 
road  without  any  chanty  at  all : 

"The  directors  of  the  Erie  Railway/'  it  said, 
"deserve  the  moral  reprobation  of  the  community. 
Had  they  been  in  any  degree  as  solicitous  for  the 
proper  condition  of  their  road  and  for  the  safety 
of  the  passengers  whom  they  entrapped  into  their 
trains,  as  they  have  shown  themselves  for  the  per 
sonal  advantages  that  might  arise  from  speculating 
in  the  stock,  this  horrible  catastrophe  would  not 
have  happened.  The  Legislature  is  in  session,  and 
we  hope  that  it  will  do  something  to  protect  the 
public  against  the  mingled  rapacity  and  neglect 
of  the  Erie  Railway  management;  let  it  decide  that 
travellers  shall  not  be  recklessly  massacred." 

But  I  didn't  care  what  the  papers  said.  No  matter 
what  you  do,  people  are  sure  to  put  a  wrong  con 
struction  upon  it.  The  best  way  is  to  be  boiler- 
plated,  so  to  speak,  and  not  mind  what  the  papers 
say.  A  bare-footed  conscience  would  suffer  con 
siderably  in  treading  among  thorns.  For  instance, 
there  was  old  Enoch  Crosby.  I  guess  I've  wrote 
about  him  in  these  papers  somewhere.  He's  the 
one  that  was  a  spy  during  the  Revolutionary  War, 
and  now  lies  up  in  the  Old  Gilead  Burying  Lot  at 
Carmel.  That  man,  when  he  was  working  as  a  spy 
for  the  patriot  troops  in  the  war,  had  to  tell  stories 
now  and  then  that  didn't  just  square  with  the  truth. 
Well,  he  was  that  prickly  in  his  conscience  that,  after 


THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         307 

the  war  was  over,  he  wouldn't  join  the  church, 
because  of  those  fibs  he  had  been  forced  to  tell.  He 
was  always  present  at  meeting  time.  He  was  even 
treasurer  of  the  church.  But,  for  year  after  year, 
he  wouldn't  apply  for  membership,  because  he  wor 
ried  so  much  over  those  little  lies  he  had  told  while 
he  was  a  Revolutionary  spy.  People  told  him  he 
was  good  enough  to  join  any  church.  But  he 
wouldn't  hear  to  it.  This  lasted  going  on  thirty 
year.  All  that  time  he  was  interested  in  the  church 
and  a  worker  for  her.  Finally,  when  he  had  got  to 
be  an  old  man,  he  up  and  said  he  would  unite  with 
the  church  if  they  were  willing  to  take  him  in.  Which 
they  did.  So  he  became  a  member.  This  was  when 
I  was  a  boy  in  Carmel.  The  people  then  were  all 
talking  about  how  Enoch  Crosby  had  finally  got  into 
the  church. 

What  I'm  saying  is,  Crosby  ought  not  to  have 
been  so  thin-skinned.  Those  little  fibs  he  told  were 
when  he  was  in  active  business.  If  he  had  told  the 
gospel  truth  every  time,  he  wouldn't  have  been  so 
good  a  spy.  He  had  to  stretch  the  truth  now  and 
then,  in  order  to  get  his  work  done.  He  was  a  fool 
to  think  that  just  because  he  had  had  to  do  that  sort 
of  thing  in  his  business  life,  he  couldn't  get  into  the 
church.  The  church  isn't  so  skittish  as  that.  Some 
folks  think  she  is.  But  she  isn't.  She's  not  squeam 
ish  in  such  matters.  She  takes  a  practical  view  of 
things  every  time.  Why,  there  was  that  preacher  I 


3o8         THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

have  wrote  about,  who  got  me  to  give  the  money  for 
Drew  Seminary.  He  didn't  stickle  over  what  my 
enemies  were  saying  about  me.  He  used  to  tell 
the  story  of  the  founding  of  the  school,  like  this: 

It  was  rumoured  that  Daniel  Drew  was  disposed 
to  found,  as  a  thank-offering  to  God,  a  Theological 
School  in  or  near  New  York.  We  were  appointed 
by  our  denomination  a  committee  to  wait  upon  Mr. 
Drew  and  ascertain  his  position.  I  shall  never 
forget  the  pleasant  interview  which  we  had  with 
Mr.  Drew  in  his  home.  With  the  utmost  simplicity 
of  manner  he  informed  us  that  it  was  his  wish  to 
devote  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  to  the  founding 
of  a  Theological  School.  Let  me  pause  for  a  mo 
ment  to  give  my  impression  of  this  remarkable  man. 
To  me  he  was  one  of  the  pleasantest  figures  in  our 
fold.  Reticent,  no  doubt,  but  loyal  to  his  church, 
and  sensible  to  his  obligations  to  our  denomination 
for  building  up  in  him  the  traits  that  had  led  to  his 
prosperity.  He  delighted  to  think  of  the  way  he 
had  been  led  on.  For  my  part,  I  am  glad  this  school 
bears  his  name. 

If  Enoch  Crosby  had  been  able  to  do  his  day's 
work,  and  always  tell  the  full  truth,  then  of  course 
he  should.  But  there  are  times  when  it  isn't  so 
easy.  A  business  man  has  got  to  get  along  somehow. 
Better  that  my  hog  should  come  dirty  home,  than  no 
hog  at  all. 


XXX 

I  WAS  now  one  of  the  biggest  men  in  the 
country.  I  had  fought  Vanderbilt  to  a 
draw.  That  meant  much.  Vanderbilt  was 
by  this  time  a  man  of  power,  so  that  ordinary  people 
were  scared  of  him.  But  I  wasn't.  He  was  rich. 
But  so  was  I.  My  property  at  this  time  footed 
up  to  thirteen  million  dollars.  (If  I  only  had 
stopped  to  think,  I'd  have  seen  it  was  an  unlucky 
figure,  and  would  have  dodged  it  in  some  way.  If 
it  had  been  twelve  millions,  or  fourteen  millions,  I 
might  have  had  better  luck  in  keeping  it.)  My 
bread  was  buttered  on  both  sides,  so  to  speak.  I 
had  a  great  mansion  at  Union  Square,  had  my  own 
stable,  and  a  servant  to  drive  my  horse  and  milk 
my  cow.  When  I  went  down  to  Broad  Street  the 
people  would  point  me  out  to  strangers.  I  was  one 
of  the  big  men  of  the  Street. 

Maybe  I  hadn't  had  so  much  book-learning  as  some. 
But  I  had  more  money  than  many  a  man  whose 
head  was  chock-full  of  book-learning.  My  clerks, 
who  had  more  schooling  than  I,  didn't  dare  to  put 
on  any  of  their  bookish  airs  around  me.  They  knew 
I  could  buy  them  out  ten  times  over.  One  night 

309 


3io         THE  BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW 

on  leaving  the  office  I  set  the  combination  of  the  safe 
at  the  letters  which  spelled  the  word,  "Doare." 
The  next  day  I  was  kept  at  my  house  for  some  time. 
The  clerks  wanted  to  open  the  safe.  So  they  sent 
up.  I  told  them  the  combination  was  for  the  word 
"Doare."  They  didn't  talk  back.  They  were  too 
much  scared  of  me  for  that.  They  tried  to  open  the 
safe.  Pretty  soon  they  sent  again:  "Mr.  Drew, 
what  was  the  word  that  you  said  was  the  combination 
for  the  safe  this  morning  ? " 

"Doare,"  I  said,  "an  ordinary  house  doare,  barn 
doare,  stable  doare  —  any  kind  of  a  doare." 

"But,"  they  insisted,  "there  are  five  letters  to 
the  combination  of  our  safe.  Are  you  sure  it's  the 
word  doare  ?  We've  tried  it  —  several  ways." 

"Of  course  I'm  sure!"  said  I.  "Turn  to  those 
letters  and  it  will  work." 

But  they  had  trouble  with  the  thing,  and  finally 
I  had  to  go  down  and  help  them  out.  When  I  took 
the  thing  in  hand,  the  safe  opened  as  easy  as  anything. 
I  turned  to  them: 

"There,"  said  I,  "it  opens  as  easy  as  an  old  sack. 
Just  d-o-a-r-e." 

\Ihave  found  out  since  that  the  ordinary  house 
doare  is  commonly  spelled  in  a  different  way  from 
that.  And  I  dare  say  some  of  those  clerks  poked 
fun  at  me  at  the  time;  but  it  wasn't  when  I  was 
around.  Book-learning  is  something,  but  thirteen 
million  dollars  is  also  something,  and  a  mighty  sight 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         311 

more.  Why,  on  the  walls  of  my  house  out  at  Drews- 
clift,  I  had,  framed  and  hung  up,  a  cancelled  check 
of  mine  for  one  million  dollars.  It  used  to  make 
the  people  out  there  stare  their  eyes  out  when  they 
came  to  see  me  and  I  woulxi  j>how  them  that  picture 
on  the  wall. 

Then  there  were  my  steamboats.  I  was  now 
president  of  the  People's  Line.  Isaac  Newton  had 
been  the  first  president.  But  during  the  Civil  War 
the  boat  that  was  named  after  him  got  afire  and  had 
to  be  sent  to  the  bottom.  It  was  during  one  of  her 
trips  up  to  Albany,  and  while  she  was  opposite 
Fort  Washington.  It  was  found  that  the  fire  had 
broken  out  because  the  back  part  of  the  arch  of  the 
starboard  boiler  had  blowed  down,  due  to  the  shat 
tering  of  the  pins  which  hold  the  braces  in  position. 
The  excitement  and  exposure  was  too  much  for  poor 
Newton  (he  was  another  of  your  thin-skinned  men). 
Nine  of  the  passengers  lost  their  lives  in  the  accident 
to  his  boat.  He  sickened  and  died. 

So  I  became  president.  St.  John  took  my  place 
as  treasurer.  Then  we  built  that  great  new  boat, 
the  Drew.  I  don't  mean  the  old  Daniel  Drew. 
That  was  a  day-boat.  I  never  was  very  proud  of 
her.  She  was  too  narrow.  When  she  had  many 
passengers  aboard  she  would  list  over,  like  a  horse 
with  a  sore  foot.  The  Drew  didn't  list  over.  She 
stood  up,  her  keel  even,  no  matter  how  many  pas 
sengers  she  was  carrying.  For  she  was  a  floating 


3i2         THE   BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW 

palace  —  and  is  even  yet.  Cost  $800,000.  She 
could  sleep  a  thousand  people.  I  was  proud  to 
have  my  picture  at  the  head  of  the  stairway  leading 
up  into  the  passenger  saloon.  Maybe  people  have 
wondered  to  see,  as  the  owner  of  so  great  a  boat,  a 
plain-looking  man,  his  face  criss  -  crossed  with 
wrinkles.  But  I  started  out  as  a  boy  so  poor,  I 
didn't  even  own  a  rowboat.  And  it's  always  the 
case,  a  wrinkled  purse  makes  a  wrinkled  face.  I 
suppose,  too,  that  some  people  have  thought  Vander- 
bilt  a  much  more  stylish  man  than  me,  because  he 
wears  his  beard  on  the  sides  of  his  face,  whilst  I  wear 
mine  under  my  chin.  But  those  little  points  don't 
count.  And  I  have  seen  people  stand  at  that  plat 
form  half-way  up  the  stairs,  and  look  at  my  full-length 
portrait  there  for  as  much  as  five  minutes  at  a  time. 
I  used  to  ride  on  the  boat  often.  It  was  a  pleasant 
way  to  take  a  trip  on  a  hot  summer's  night;  and 
didn't  cost  a  penny.  In  going  to  Saratoga  I  used 
to  take  one  of  the  bridal  chambers  for  my  stateroom, 
if  there  weren't  any  bridal  couples  on  board.  During 
the  summer  time,  at  this  period  of  my  life,  I  and 
my  family  used  to  have  a  tent  up  in  the  garden 
back  of  the  Grand  Union  Hotel,  taking  our  meals 
at  the  hotel  table.  I  could  go  to  Saratoga  without 
its  costing  anything;  and  I  used  to  like  the  air  up 
there.  That  is  the  way  I  got  acquainted  with  John 
Morrissey.  He  had  his  gambling  house  right  oppo 
site  the  Congress  Park.  So  when  I  would  go  out 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          313 

in  the  morning  to  take  a  drink  of  the  spring  water, 
I  used  to  meet  him.  But  I  never  would  go  into 
his  place.  Gambling  is  a  sin  that  I  didn't  want  to 
countenance.  But  I  used  to  have  many  good  chats 
with  Morrissey,  and  when  he  and  I  were  going  up 
the  river  in  my  boat,  we  would  visit  way  into  the 
night. 

I  also  had  a  tent  down  at  Ocean  Grove  (which 
was  then  just  beginning  to  be  settled).  Before 
Ocean  Grove  came,  Peney's  Grove  at  Brewsters', 
and  the  camp  just  out  of  Sing  Sing,  amidst  those 
great  oak  trees,  used  to  be  my  favourite  camp  meet 
ings.  It  was  a  refreshment  both  to  body  and  spirit, 
when  August  set  in,  to  get  away  from  business  cares, 
set  up  my  tent  at  one  or  the  other  of  these  camp 
meetings,  and  receive  a  blessing. 

In  the  summer  time  also,  before  the  camp  meetings 
opened,  I  would  go  out  to  my  big  farm,  between 
Brewsters'  and  Carmel.  I  don't  know  but  what 
I  enjoyed  myself  raising  fat  beeves  there  almost 
as  much  as  I  did  my  work  in  Wall  Street.  I  knew 
how  to  handle  money,  and  I  knew  also  how  to  handle 
critters.  Western  breeds  were  the  ones  I  kept 
mostly  on  my  farm.  And  I  had  fine  luck  with  them. 
One  year,  out  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  head  of 
cattle  sold  from  my  farm,  a  hundred  weighed  over 
a  thousand  pounds  in  the  beef.  My  son,  Billy, 
must  have  learned  the  trick  of  cattle  raising  from 
me.  Because  when  he  went  to  live  on  the  farm, 


314         THE   BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW 

he  surprised  me  one  year  by  sending  to  the  New  York 
market  a  pair  of  oxen  which  took  the  prize.  We 
had  a  big  time  down  in  Wall  Street  when  those  oxen 
were  led  through.  One  of  them  was  called  "Com 
modore  Vanderbilt"  and  the  other,  "Daniel  Drew." 
They  were  all  fixed  up  with  flags  and  trimmings 
and  knickknacks.  There  was  a  band  of  music 
to  lead  the  procession.  When  they  came  by  my 
office,  at  30  Broad  Street,  I  looked  out  of  the 
door  and  was  proud  to  think  I  had  a  son  that  could 
raise  a  pair  of  cattle  like  that.  Their  picture  was 
painted  in  oil,  and  is  a  witness  to  this  day  to  the  fine 
stock  that  these  York  State  hills  can  breed,  when  a 
man  knows  how. 

Besides  my  money  and  boats  and  farms,  there 
was  something  else  which  made  me  one  of  the  big 
men  of  the  country.  This  was  my  position  in  the 
Street.  It's  a  great  thing  to  be  an  insider.  Even 
a  man  with  as  much  money  as  I,  wouldn't  have  been 
so  big  as  I  was,  unless  he  had  been  on  the  inside 
of  the  great  operating  cliques.  We  were  so  power 
ful  that  even  the  law  couldn't  get  in  and  bother  us 
with  its  technicalities.  The  London  Times  had  to 
admit  our  great  power.  That  paper  come  out  with 
a  howl  like  this : 

The  parties  concerned  have  long  ago  shown 
that  there  is  no  financial  iniquity  which  persons 
in  command  of  money  cannot  commit  in  Wall  Street 
with  entire  impunity,  as  regards  legal  consequence 


THE  BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW         315 

in  the  Civil  Courts,  and  very  nearly,  also,  as  regards 
social  position. 

Of  course  this  London  paper  was  bound  to  be 
more  or  less  bitter,  and  blow  about  "financial 
iniquity"  and  such-iike.  Because  the  British  stock 
holders  in  Erie  had  for  a  long  time  back  been  trying 
to  oust  me  from  control  of  the  road.  That  is  why 
this  sheet  of  theirs  kept  slurring  me  as  it  did. 

But  I  didn't  care.  I  was  on  top.  At  this  time 
in  my  life,  all  my  eggs  had  two  yolks.  Most  every 
deal  I  went  into  turned  out  prosperous.  I  was  as 
contented  as  mice  in  a  cheese. 


XXXI 

I  SOMETIMES    wish    I    had    stayed    in     the 
steamboat     business     and     let     Wall     Street 
alone.     I'd  have  made  money  in  a  more  steady 
way  and  without  the  risk.     Steamboats  are  not  so 
liable  to  ups  and  downs  as  stocks  are.     And  at  this 
time  I  was  earning  from  my  steamboats  alone  enough 
money  to  have  made  me  in  time  a  man  of  comfort 
able  means. 

But  the  trouble  with  business  of  that  kind  is, 
there  are  so  many  little  things  to  look  after,  which 
keep  you  on  the  go  well-nigh  all  the  time.  Because 
the  profits  from  a  business  line  are  made  up  of  a 
lot  of  small  profits;  and  each  detail  is  liable  to  leak 
money  unless  you  look  out. 

For  instance,  there  was  the  one  item  of  the  bar,  on 
my  steamboats.  Going  into  the  bar  one  day  on  the 
steamboat  Drew,  who  should  I  see  there  but  the 
Captain  of  the  boat  taking  a  drink.  I  was  going 
to  be  mad  at  first,  and  stood  watching  him  in  order 
to  think  what  I  should  do.  He  stood  very  cool, 
finished  his  glass,  put  it  down,  and  then  paid  the 
bartender  a  quarter.  When  I  saw  that,  I  wasn't 
so  mad. 

316 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         317 

"Do  the  employees  on  the  boat  pay  every  time 
they  get  anything  from  the  bar  ?"  I  asked. 

"Always,"  said  he;  "at  least  I  do.  In  fact, 
Mr.  Drew,  I  find  it  a  very  good  way  to  keep  in  check 
a  natural  propensity  of  mine  which  might  otherwise 
grow  into  something  inconvenient."  I  was  glad  to 
know  that  he  always  paid;  but  the  incident  merely 
shows  the  many  leaks  that  could  occur  in  a  business 
as  big  as  this  steamboat  business  of  mine,  if  a  fellow 
were  to  follow  it  up  as  a  life  pursuit. 

Then,  also,  there  is  the  bother  which  small  business 
matters  bring  you.  I  had  a  lawsuit  hanging  over 
my  head  for  years  over  the  sale  of  the  steamboat, 
Francis  Skiddy.  It  belonged  to  the  line  which  went 
from  New  York  to  Troy.  I  sold  it  to  the  People's 
Line.  In  reality  I  was  buyer  and  seller  too.  Because 
I  owned  a  controlling  interest  in  both  lines,  and  so 
could  make  the  seller  sell,  and  the  buyer  buy.  Well, 
some  of  the  smaller  Skiddy  stock-holders  got  mad 
at  the  transaction  and  sued  me  for  damages.  Because 
on  the  last  trip  of  that  boat,  just  before  she  was 
going  to  be  delivered  to  the  People's  Line,  she  ran 
on  a  rock  off  of  Start's  Landing,  and  ripped  a  hole 
in  her  bottom  sixteen  feet  long  and  three  planks 
wide.  This,  of  course,  lowered  now  by  a  good  deal 
the  selling  value  of  the  boat.  And  yet  gave  me  the 
thing  I  wanted  out  of  her,  the  engine.  This  was 
still  undamaged,  and  could  now  be  transferred 
into  another  boat,  and  at  a  reasonable  figure.  I 


3i8         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

had  been  wanting  the  Skiddy  engine  for  this  other 
boat  a  long  time  back.  I  gave  out  that  her  running 
on  the  rocks  just  at  this  time  when  the  sale  was  about 
to  be  made,  was  an  accident  which  I  hadn't  had 
anything  to  do  with.  But  her  stock-holders  made 
a  big  fuss.  They  went  into  court  and  sued  me  for 
sixty  thousand  dollars.  The  thing  dragged  and 
dragged,  and  now  finally  the  court  has  made  me  pay 
it.  It  merely  shows  the  vexations  of  spirit  that 
come  when  you  are  in  a  business  line. 

I  like  Wall  Street  because  you  stand  a  chance  of 
making  money  there  so  much  faster  than  you  can 
in  the  slow-poke  ways  of  regular  business.  One 
turn  of  two  or  three  points  in  shares  will,  if  you  are 
on  the  right  side  and  have  put  out  a  big  enough  line, 
net  you  as  much  money  in  six  days  as  an  ordinary 
business  would  in  six  months.  By  this  time  I  had 
got  so  that  I  knew  all  the  ins  and  outs  of  Wall  Street. 
There  are  trade  secrets  in  every  calling.  The  new 
comer  is  always  at  a  discount  compared  to  the  old 
veteran.  I  found  that  many  times  now  I  could 
turn  this  expert  knowledge  of  mine  to  account. 
One  morning,  I  remember,  I  was  riding  down  to 
the  Street  in  the  carriage  of  a  young  stock  operator 
who  had  taken  me  in  with  him,  to  save  paying  fare 
in  the  Broadway  stage.  He  knew  that  I  was  on  the 
inside  of  some  of  the  big  stock-market  operations, 
and  he  thought  he  might  get  some  inside  tips.  I  had 
looked  for  something  of  the  sort  to  occur.  It's  a 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         319 

caution  the  way  outsiders  hang  around  people  who 
are  on  the  inside.  The  flies  get  at  you  when  you're 
covered  with  honey.  Whilst  we  were  driving  down 
Broadway  he  pumped  and  pumped;  but  I  was  as 
dumb  as  a  heifer.  I  made  believe  there  were  big 
things  just  then  under  way  which  we,  who  were 
on  the  inside,  didn't  want  other  people  to  get  onto. 

Well,  when  we  reached  the  Street,  and  he  had  got 
the  carriage  stopped  in  front  of  my  office,  I  opened 
the  door  and  stepped  out.  In  doing  so,  I  contrived 
to  bump  my  hat  against  the  top  of  the  doorway. 
It  was  a  black  felt  hat.  (I  like  black  felt  for  a  hat. 
It's  so  durable.  You  can  wear  one  several 
years  before  it  begins  to  show  signs  of  wear.)  My 
hat  fell  off,  and  some  pieces  of  paper  fell  out.  On 
those  pieces  of  paper  I  had  written  what  seemed 
to  be  orders  to  my  brokers:  "Buy  500  Erie,  at  68." 
"Buy  1,000  at  67."  "Buy  2,000  Erie  at  the  market." 
"  Buy  3,000  Erie  at  67  J,"  and  such-like.  Of  course, 
as  they  spread  over  the  floor  of  the  carriage,  he  or 
any  one  else  couldn't  help  but  see  what  they  were, 
and  read  them.  I  made  believe  I  was  awfully  put 
out  to  have  the  secret  given  away  like  that.  I  made 
a  scramble  as  though  to  gather  them  up  before  any 
one  should  see  them;  then  I  said  good-bye  and 
went  into  my  office. 

I  calculated  he  would  most  likely  act  on  the  hint. 
And  he  did.  He  drove  rapidly  to  his  office.  He 
told  his  crowd  of  the  discovery  he  had  made.  "A 


32o         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

big  Bulling  movement  in  Erie  is  on!  The  old  man" 
(that's  what  they  sometimes  called  me)  "is  buying 
Erie!  A  campaign  is  under  way.  Boys,  we 
must  get  in  on  this!"  So  he  bought  a  block  of  five 
thousand  shares  of  Erie.  The  rest  of  his  crowd 
followed  him.  Their  combined  buying  forced  Erie 
up  point  after  point. 

That  was  what  I  had  been  looking  for.  I  had  been 
wanting  for  some  time  back  to  find  a  buyer  for  some 
of  my  surplus  stock.  Now  it  was  coming  my 
way  fine.  I  immediately  dumped  onto  the  market 
all  the  Erie  it  would  stand.  I  succeeded  in  disposing 
of  a  large  share  of  my  holdings  at  the  top  figure. 
Then  of  course  the  market  broke.  It  sagged  four 
points  in  the  next  two  days.  My  broker  friend  and 
his  crowd  were  badly  caught.  He  came  to  me  with 
a  face  as  long  as  your  arm;  said  how  he  had  been 
led  to  believe  that  there  was  going  to  be  an  upward 
movement  in  Erie;  he  had  bought  heavily;  and  now 
it  had  all  gone  to  smash.  "Uncle,  what  in  the 
world  shall  I  do?" 

I  told  him  he  could  do  anything  he  pleased.  And 
I  couldn't  keep  from  chuckling  at  the  fine  way  I  had 
got  him  to  gobble  the  bait.  In  fact  I  always  did 
like  a  joke.  So  much  so  that  they  got  to  calling 
me  the  "Merry  Old  Gentleman  of  Wall  Street." 
They  had  other  names  for  me,  too;  such  as,  "the 
Speculative  Director,"  "the  Big  Bear,"  "the  Old 
Man  of  the  Street"  and  so  on.  Some  of  these 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          321 

names  I  didn't  like.  But  "the  Merry  Old  Gentle 
man"  -I  kind  of  liked  that.  I  believe  in  being 
merry  when  you  can.  A  good  chuckle,  when  you've 
got  a  fellow  in  a  tight  box  and  you  watch  him  squirm 
this  way  and  that,  does  more  good  than  a  dose  of 
medicine. 

As  to  this  particular  Erie  deal,  by  thus  making  a 
market  for  my  shares,  I  cleaned  up  a  fine  profit. 
That  merely  shows  how  an  operator,  if  he  is  onto 
the  tricks  of  the  trade  and  has  natural  ingenuity 
besides,  can  make  business  in  a  sick  market,  where 
a  newcomer  would  have  to  sit  and  twiddle  his  thumbs. 

I  have  always  had  a  natural  bent  for  stock-market 
dickers.  I  suppose  it's  because  I  have  been  sort 
of  humble  in  my  manner.  That  puts  people  off 
their  guard.  (I  never  was  proud,  anyhow.  People 
used  to  say:  You  couldn't  tell  from  Dan  Drew's 
clothing  but  what  he  was  a  butcher  in  a  Third 
Avenue  shop.  But  I  let  them  talk.  You  can't 
tell  a  horse  by  his  harness.  And  I  have  always 
thought  a  man  should  have  more  in  his  pocket  than 
on  his  back.)  I  have  found  a  spirit  of  humility 
very  helpful.  It  makes  the  man  you're  dealing  with 
think  he  is  winding  you  around  his  finger;  whereas 
you  are  the  one  who  is  doing  the  winding. 

That's  how  I  got  the  best  of  a  lawyer  friend  of 
mine  once.  He  was  a  young  fellow.  I  had  him  do 
some  legal  work  for  me.  He  did  it.  Then  he  sent 
in  a  bill.  It  seemed  an  almighty  big  fee  to  ask  for  just 


322          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

a  few  months'  work.  I  paid  it.  But  I  made  up 
my  mind  I'd  get  it  back.  And  I  did.  I  was  talk 
ing  with  him  not  long  after.  I  turned  the  conversation 
to  Wall  Street  matters. 

"Sonny,"  said  I,  "you  won  that  lawsuit  for 
me,  and  I've  taken  a  kind  of  liking  to  you.  I  want 
to  help  you.  We  fellows  on  the  inside  sometimes 
know  what's  going  to  happen  in  stock-market  affairs 
before  other  people.  It's  my  advice  to  you  to  take 
some  of  your  spare  cash,  all  the  money  you  can  lay 
your  hands  on,  in  fact,  and  buy  Erie  stock." 

He  held  off.  He  said  that  his  business  was  law 
and  not  the  stock-market.  He  believed  that  a  shoe 
maker  should  stick  to  his  lasts.  Fair  words  made 
him  look  to  his  purse.  And  such-like. 

"Now,  son,"  said  I,  "do  as  I  say.  I  knew  your 
father.  And  because  of  that  friendship,  I  feel  a 
kind  of  interest  in  you.  I  want  to  see  you  get  a  start. 
You  buy  Erie.  Buy  all  you  can  of  it,  at  the  present 
market  price.  Trust  me,  you'll  never  be  sorry." 
He  thought  for  a  while.  He  said  he  guessed  he'd 
try  the  thing  for  once. 

That  was  what  I'd  been  waiting  for.  I  went 
out  and  immediately  gave  orders  to  my  brokers  to 
sell  all  the  Erie  they  could.  Soon  the  ticker  told 
me  that  my  brokers  were  finding  a  buyer  for  the 
Erie  they  were  offering.  I  thought  I  could  give 
a  pretty  shrewd  guess  as  to  who  was  the  buyer.  I 
supplied  him  with  all  he  would  take.  By  the  time 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW         323 

the  market  broke,  I  had  saddled  him  with  enough 
Erie  at  a  good  high  figure  to  sluice  from  his  pocket 
into  mine  all  of  that  fee  which  he  had  scooped  out 
of  me  just  a  few  weeks  before.  I  now  called  the 
account  even. 


XXXII 

FOR   a   spell  after  settling  up  with    the    Com 
modore    at    the    close    of    the    Erie    War, 
I  got  out  of  Wall  Street.     I  was  by  this  time 
over  my  scriptural  allowance  of  three  score  years  and 
ten.     I  thought  I  had  earned  a  rest.     I  figured  that  I 
had  made  my  wad,  and  now  should  begin  to  enjoy  it. 

Let  worldly  minds  the  world  pursue; 

It  has  no  charms  for  me. 
Once  I  admired  its  trifles,  too, 

But  grace  has  set  me  free. 

I  seemed  to  myself  to  be  now  in  a  quiet  harbour, 
like  that  fine  big  bay  that  dents  in  from  the  Hudson 
River  at  Fishkill.  I  could  look  out  from  that  safe 
retreat  onto  the  human  vessels  that  were  tossing 
in  the  billows  outside.  "From  every  stormy  wind 
that  blows"  -that  has  always  been  a  favourite 
hymn  of  mine.  And  that  other  tune,  too: 

Oh,  Beulah  Land,  Sweet  Beulah  Land, 
Where  on  the  highest  mount  I  stand; 
I  look  away  across  the  sea, 
Where  mansions  are  prepared  for  me, 
And  view  the  shining  glorious  shore, 
My  heaven,  my  home  forever  more. 
324 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         325 

But  after  two  or  three  months  of  nothing  to  do, 
I  kind  of  got  tired  of  resting.  I  saw  Gould  and  Fisk 
making  money  in  Erie  hand  over  fist,  and  I  hankered 
to  get  back.  I  wanted  to  stick  a  finger  in  that 
pudding,  so  to  speak.  They  had  taken  Bill  Tweed 
and  Pete  Sweeney  into  the  Board  of  Directors. 
This  was  giving  them  such  a  fine  pull  with  the  law 
courts  and  the  New  York  City  authorities  that  they 
could  do  most  anything  they  wanted  to,  and  not  be 
troubled  with  suits  or  legal  technicalities.  Tweed 
became  a  director  of  the  railroad,  "to  get  square 
with  Erie/'  as  he  put  it.  For  he  was  still  nettled 
over  those  old  losses  in  Erie  speckilations  which  he 
said  I  had  caused  him,  and  now  he  vowed  he  was 
going  to  get  it  back — was  going  to  take  it  out  of 
the  road,  no  matter  what  it  cost  her.  When  I  had 
got  out  of  Erie  at  the  time  of  our  settlement  with 
Vanderbilt,  I  figured  that  in  taking  my  pay  in  cash 
and  leaving  Fisk  and  Gould  the  road,  I  had  got  the 
best  end  of  the  bargain.  I  was  chuckling  to  myself 
to  think  how  I  had  taken  the  horse,  so  to  speak,  and 
had  left  them  holding  onto  the  halter.  But  Jay's 
words  were  proving  true.  And  although  Erie  seemed 
a  badly  waterlogged  craft,  there  was  a  lot  of  service 
left  in  her  yet.  Therefore  I  wanted  to  get  back 
on  board,  so  to  speak. 

At  the  time  of  that  settlement,  a  little  feeling  had 
arisen  between  me  and  the  other  two,  Jay  and 
Jimmy.  But  personal  feelings  don't  count  in  Wall 


326         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

Street.  Operators  can  swear  everlasting  vengeance 
on  each  other  one  day,  and  be  thick  as  molasses 
before  sundown  the  next.  In  financial  circles,  it's 
the  money  that  counts.  No  matter  how  mad  you 
may  be  at  a  fellow,  if  you  need  his  money  you  make 
up  with  him  easy  as  anything.  Erie  was  still  a 
money-maker.  So  I  wanted  to  get  on  the  inside 
once  more.  If  I  could  have  another  turn  or  two 
at  the  milking  stool,  so  to  speak,  I  felt  I'd  be  willing 
to  retire  from  active  business  altogether.  Accord 
ingly,  before  the  summer  was  over,  I  was  calling 
on  Gould  and  Fisk,  and  they  were  coming  to  see 
me,  just  as  though  we  hadn't  had  any  differences 
at  all.  Before  I  knew  it,  I  was  back  in  the  thick 
of  things,  and  busy  as  a  pup. 

We  now  set  out  on  a  Bear  campaign  —  we  three, 
Gould,  Fisk  and  I.  Being  backed  by  Tweed  and 
his  political  crowd,  it  promised  big  returns.  But 
it  required  a  lot  of  nerve.  In  fact,  before  it  was 
through,  it  raised  more  excitement  than  I  had  bar 
gained  for.  It  was  the  Lock-up  of  greenbacks. 

It  seemed  a  foolhardy  thing  to  do  --go  short  of 
stocks  just  at  that  particular  time.  Because  it 
was  the  fall  of  the  year.  The  Government  reports 
showed  that  bumper  crops  were  to  be  harvested  in 
nearly  all  parts  of  the  country.  A  big  traffic  from 
the  West  to  the  seaboard  was  promised.  The 
election  of  General  Grant  as  president  was  almost 
a  settled  thing;  and  if  he  was  elected,  the  policy  of 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL    DREW          327 

the  Government  would  be  an  immediate  resumption 
of  specie  payment.  Money  was  easy  as  an  old  shoe. 
When  money  is  easy,  stocks  go  up.  Because  at 
such  times  people  have  got  the  means  to  margin 
large  holdings  and  so  are  hopeful  and  Bullish.  It 
was  about  the  last  time  in  the  world,  one  would  have 
said,  to  begin  a  Bear  campaign.  But  that's  really 
just  the  time  in  which  to  begin  it.  Because  the  way 
to  make  money  in  Wall  Street,  if  you  are  an  insider, 
is  to  calculate  on  what  the  common  people  are  going 
to  do,  and  then  go  and  do  just  the  opposite.  When 
everybody  is  Bullish,  that  is  just  the  time  when  you 
can  make  the  most  money  as  a  Bear,  if  you  work  it 
right.  And  we  of  our  little  clique  thought  we  could 
work  it  right. 

When  money  is  easy  the  public  buys  stocks,  and 
so  the  prices  go  up.  The  way  to  do,  we  calculated, 
would  be  to  make  money  tight.  Then  people  would 
sell,  prices  would  go  down,  and  we  could  cover  our 
short  contracts  at  a  fine  low  figure.  In  this  work 
of  making  money  tight  we  were  helped  by  one  fact. 
The  Government,  in  order  to  resume  specie  pay 
ments,  had  adopted  a  policy  of  contracting  the 
amount  of  greenbacks  in  circulation.  It  was  refus 
ing  to  reissue  greenback  notes  after  it  had  once  got 
them  back  into  its  vaults. 

But  that  wasn't  enough  to  tighten  the  currency 
to  the  point  where  it  would  serve  our  ends.  So  we 
set  about  working  it  ourselves.  For  this  purpose 


328         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

we  made  a  pool  of  money  to  the  amount  of  fourteen 
millions.  Fisk  and  Gould  provided  ten  millions,  and 
I  agreed  to  put  in  four  millions. 

The  banks,  as  everybody  knows,  are  required 
by  law  to  keep  as  reserve  twenty-five  per  cent,  of 
their  deposits.  This  is  in  order  to  take  care  of  their 
depositors.  When  their  cash  on  hand  is  over  and 
above  this  twenty-five  per  cent,  margin,  bankers 
loan  money  free  and  easy.  As  soon  as  their  cash 
begins  to  creep  down  to  the  twenty-five  per  cent, 
limit  —  which  can  almost  be  called  the  dead  line  - 
bankers  begin  to  get  the  cold  shivers;  they  tighten 
their  rates,  and  if  the  need  is  urgent  enough,  call 
in  their  outstanding  loans.  Knowing  this  we  made 
our  plans  accordingly.  We  would  put  all  of  our 
cash  into  the  form  of  deposits  in  the  banks.  Against 
these  deposits  we  would  write  checks  and  get  the 
banks  to  certify  them.  The  banks  would  have  to 
tie  up  enough  funds  to  take  care  of  these  certifications. 
With  the  certified  checks  as  collateral  we  would 
borrow  greenbacks  -  -  and  then  withdraw  them 
suddenly  from  circulation. 

When  our  arrangements  were  complete,  we  went 
onto  the  stock  market  and  sold  shares  heavily  short. 
People  thought  we  were  fools,  because  of  all  the 
signs  pointing  to  a  big  revival  of  trade.  Soon  these 
contracts  of  ours  matured.  We  held  a  council. 
We  decided  that  the  time  had  come  to  explode  our 
bomb.  So  all  of  a  sudden  we  called  upon  the  banks 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         329 

for  our  greenbacks.  I  remember  well  the  scared 
look  that  came  over  the  face  of  one  banker  when  I 
made  the  demand.  At  first  he  didn't  understand. 

"Oh,  yes/'  said  he,  after  I  had  made  my  request; 
"you  wish  to  withdraw  your  deposits  from  our  bank  ? 
Of  course,  we  can  accomodate  you.  We  shall  take 
measures  to  get  your  account  straightened  up  in 
the  next  few  days." 

1  The  next  few  days  won't  do,"  said  I;  "we  must 
have  it  right  away." 

"Right  away!"   he  said.     "What  do  you  mean  ?" 
"  I  mean,"  said  I, "  within  the  next  fifteen  minutes/' 
He   began  to  turn  white.     "Do  you  understand 
that  a  sudden  demand  of  this  kind  was  altogether 
unlocked  for,  and  will  occasion  a  great  deal  of  need 
less   hardship  ?     A  wait    on   your    part   of    only   a 
very  short  time  would  permit  us  to  straighten  out  the 
whole  affair  without  injustice  to  our  other  depositors 
and  clients." 

"I'm  not  in  business,"  I  said,  "for  the  benefit 
of  your  other  depositors  and  clients.  I've  got  to 
look  out  for  number  one." 

"So  I  perceive,"  he  said;  "and  I  suspect  that 
you  are  willing  to  look  out  for  that  person  quite 
regardless  of  other  'number  ones'  that  are  scattered 
somewhat  thickly  through  human  society.  How 
ever,  we  will  probably  have  to  do  your  bidding. 
I  will  see  what  help  we  can  get  from  some  of  the 
other  banks." 


330         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

As  soon  as  he  began  to  communicate  with  the 
other  banks,  his  alarm  increased.  Because  he  found 
that  their  funds  were  being  called  on  in  the  same 
way  as  his  own  (we  were  calling  in  the  greenbacks 
from  our  chain  of  banks  all  to  once).  Then  he  got 
to  work  in  good  earnest.  Because  our  fourteen 
millions  (through  the  working  of  that  law  of  a 
twenty-five  per  cent,  reserve),  meant  a  contracting 
of  the  currency  to  four  times  that  amount,  or  fifty- 
six  millions  in  all,  besides  the  certifications.  He 
called  a  hasty  council  of  the  officers  of  the  bank. 
He  ordered  them  to  make  up  my  greenbacks  into  a 
bundle,  for  me  to  take  out  to  the  carriage  which  I 
had  brought  along  with  me  for  that  purpose.  I  started 
to  thank  him,  but  he  seemed  too  busy  to  notice  me. 
Messengers  were  being  sent  out  on  the  double-quick 
to  all  the  brokers  who  were  customers  of  the  bank, 
notifying  them  they  were  to  return  their  borrowings 
to  the  bank  at  once. 

As  each  of  these  brokers  found  his  loans  being 
suddenly  called  by  the  banks,  he  sent  word  in  turn 
to  his  clients  that  they  must  put  up  the  money 
themselves  to  carry  their  holdings  of  stock.  Because 
the  public  in  buying  shares  don't  pay  for  them 
outright;  they  only  pay  a  margin,  say  often  per  cent. 
The  broker,  therefore,  has  to  put  up  the  other  ninety 
per  cent.,  which  he  borrows  from  the  banks,  and 
charges  his  customers  the  interest. 

The   customers   immediately   sent   back  word   to 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         331 

the  brokers:  "We  haven't  anywheres  near  the 
cash  to  pay  for  our  stocks  outright.  Borrow  from 
the  banks,  even  though  you  have  to  pay  ten  per 


cent,  interest." 


"But  we  can't  get  money  at  ten  per  cent.," 
answered  the  brokers. 

"Then  pay  fifteen,"  said  the  customers. 

"  But  we  can't  get  it  at  fifteen,"  came  the  answer. 
"The  rates  for  money  have  gone  up  to  160  per 
cent.  There's  a  terrible  tightening.  No  one  was 
looking  for  it.  We've  got  to  have  the  cash,  or  we 
can't  carry  your  stocks  a  moment  longer." 

''Then  let  the  stocks  go,"  came  back  the  last 
answer;  "throw  them  on  the  market,  and  do  it 
before  anybody  else  begins." 

You  can  imagine,  when  a  thousand  people  begin 
to  sell,  what  a  slump  takes  place.  The  money 
market  is  the  key  to  the  stock  market.  They  who 
control  the  money  rate  control  also  the  stock  rate. 
Stocks  began  to  tumble  right  and  left.  Many 
stop-loss  orders  were  uncovered.  Prices  sagged 
point  after  point  —  thirty  points  in  all.  And  every 
point  meant  one  dollar  in  our  pockets  for  every  share 
we  were  dealing  in. 

People  everywhere  began  to  curse  us.  The  air 
round  about  us  three  men  was  fire  and  sulphur. 
Men  couldn't  get  money  to  carry  on  their  business. 
Merchant  princes,  who  had  inherited  the  business 
from  their  fathers  through  several  generations,  lost 


332         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

it  now  in  a  night.  This  was  the  time  of  the  year 
when  ordinarily  money  would  flow  out  to  the  South 
and  West  to  pay  the  farmers  for  the  crops  which 
they  had  been  working  all  spring  and  summer  to 
bring  to  harvest.  But  now  that  money  couldn't 
flow,  and  so  these  farmers  in  a  dozen  states  also 
began  to  hurl  their  curses  at  us.  Many  of  them  had 
been  counting  on  the  money  from  their  crops  to 
pay  off  mortgages.  Some  were  driven  from  their 
homes,  and  their  houses  sold. 

In  fact,  the  curses  got  so  loud  after  a  while  that  I 
kind  of  got  scared.  I  hadn't  thought  the  thing 
would  kick  up  such  a  rumpus.  It  almost  looked  as 
though  our  lives  weren't  safe.  They  might  burn 
down  my  house  over  my  head,  or  stab  me  on  a 
street  corner.  So  I  got  out  of  the  thing.  My  shirt 
fits  close,  but  my  skin  fits  closer.  I  told  Gould 
and  Fisk  that  I  wasn't  going  to  be  with  them  in  this 
lock-up  deal  any  longer  —  my  life  was  too  precious. 
If  they  chose  to  be  dare-devils  and  stand  out  against 
a  whole  country  rising  up  in  wrath  against  them, 
they  could  do  it.  But  for  my  part  I  was  going  to 
make  my  peace  with  my  fellow  men.  So  I  released 
the  money  I  was  hoarding,  and  was  glad  to  be  out 
of  the  thing  at  last. 


XXXIII 

EVEN  though  I  drew  out  of  this  lock-up 
deal,  I  got  a  good  share  of  the  blame. 
In  fact,  people  seemed  to  curse  me 
more  than  they  did  Gould  and  Fisk;  because  they 
said  these  other  two  were  younger  —  were  pupils 
of  mine.  And  that  I  was  chargeable  for  getting 
them  into  these  plundersome  habits,  as  they  called 
it.  If  I  had  ever  cared  much  for  the  speech  of 
people,  I  suppose  I'd  have  taken  the  thing  to  heart. 

But  I  never  cared  what  people  were  saying,  so 
long  as  they  didn't  do  anything  but  talk.  Talking 
doesn't  hurt.  You  can  pass  it  by.  This  locking- 
up  of  greenbacks  had  netted  us  so  fine  a  penny 
that  we  could  afford  to  stand  a  lot  of  abuse.  Besides, 
the  people  whose  money  we  had  got  were  not  able 
to  get  back  at  us.  We  were  protected  from  law 
suits  by  means  of  our  standing  in  with  Tweed  and 
his  crowd.  We  were  also  able,  because  of  this 
political  influence,  to  show  the  people  who  were 
all  the  time  reviling  us  that  we  were  pretty  power 
ful  in  New  York  City  and  were  not  to  be  abused. 

There,  for  instance,  was  that  man  Bowles,  who 
owned  a  sheet  up  in  Springfield.  He  had  been 

333 


334         THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

picking  at  me  and  my  Erie  crowd  for  a  long  time 
back.  A  lot  of  the  newspapers,  anyhow,  were  now 
beginning  to  snarl  and  snap  at  us:-  "Erie  Rascal 
ities,"  "National  Infamy,"  "Railroad  Burglary," 
"Drew  at  the  Head  of  a  Piratical  Horde  of  Plun 
derers"  -whatnot!  One  of  them,  a  Bill  Bryant, 
editor  of  the  New  York  Post,  got  what  he  deserved. 
Tweed's  Judge,  Barnard,  right  from  the  judge's 
bench,  called  him,  "the  most  notorious  liar  in  the 
United  States."  And  now  this  other  fellow,  Bowles, 
was  also  to  be  taken  down  a  peg  or  two.  For  Bowles 
had  come  out  with  a  pitchfork  article  against  us, 
and  against  Jimmy  in  particular.  This  time  he 
went  too  far,  and  we  hit  back.  Jimmy  was  the 
last  one  of  us,  anyhow,  whom  they  ought  to  have 
hit.  Because  he  stood  in  with  Tweed  and  his  crowd 
even  more  than  Gould  or  I. 

So  one  day  soon  after,  this  man  Bowles  was  dow^n 
in  New  York  City,  attending  a  meeting  of  the  New 
England  Society  at  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel.  He 
was  standing  in  the  hotel  office.  There  he  was 
approached  by  Jack  McGowan,  the  deputy  sheriff, 
and  another.  One  of  them  passed  on  beyond 
Bowles,  then  turned,  seized  him  by  the  arms,  and 
began  to  shove  him  towards  the  street  door,  whilst 
the  other  held  a  paper  in  his  face,  a  warrant  for  his 
arrest.  Once  in  the  street,  they  pushed  him  into 
a  carriage  which  was  in  waiting,  and  drove  rapidly 
to  the  Ludlow  Street  Jail.  This  was  eight  o'clock 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          335 

at  night.  Bail  was  fixed  at  fifty  thousand  dollars. 
Bowles  had  so  many  friends  that  he  could  probably 
have  raised  it.  But  all  the  details  had  been  arranged 
so  thoroughly  that  now  the  sheriff's  office  was  closed 
for  the  night;  and  so  bail  couldn't  be  received. 
Bowles  asked  a  friend  to  carry  the  news  of  his  arrest 
to  his  wife,  who  was  in  poor  health  at  the  Albemarle 
Hotel,  and  asked  for  writing  materials  to  make 
out  the  note;  but  this  was  held  back  for  a  time. 
Because  the  idea  was  to  punish  him  once  for  all, 
by  some  hours  in  solitary  confinement.  By  ten 
o'clock  the  news  of  his  arrest  had  got  out  and  there 
was  a  lot  of  his  friends  gathered  at  the  jail,  such  as 
Mr.  Dana,  Mr.  Bond  and  General  Arthur.  But  the 
jailer  said  he  couldn't  let  any  one  see  the  prisoner. 
They  looked  up  the  sheriff  and  found  him  at  a  party 
which  was  being  given  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Brown, 
on  Fifth  Avenue,  to  celebrate  a  Tammany  victory. 
The  sheriff  excused  himself  for  a  minute,  and  getting 
out  of  sight,  didn't  come  back.  Bowles's  friends 
went  over  to  the  sheriff's  house,  but  they  couldn't 
get  anybody  out  of  bed.  So  the  prisoner  had  to 
spend  the  night  behind  the  bars.  Of  course,  in 
the  morning  his  friends  who  had  been  up  all  night, 
such  as  Mr.  Dunn,  Cyrus  W.  Field,  and  the  others, 
got  the  bail  bond,  and  by  eleven  o'clock  he  was  free. 
But  he  had  gone  through  an  experience  which  must 
have  taught  a  lesson  to  the  pen-and-ink  fellows  far 
and  wide. 


336         THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

Fisk  was  a  fellow  who  carried  out  his  plans  when 
he  once  made  up  his  mind  to  a  thing  —  didn't  mind 
the  expense.  He  used  to  drive  in  the  park  with  his 
lady-loves,  behind  six  horses  —  three  white  ones 
on  one  side  and  three  black  ones  on  the  other.  He 
liked  to  make  a  splurge.  He  had  a  boat,  the  Ply 
mouth  Rocky  that  used  to  run  down  to  Sandy  Hook. 
Jimmy  put  canary  birds  all  through  the  passenger 
cabins.  One  day  Vanderbilt  was  going  down  on  the 
boat  and  took  Jimmy  to  task  for  it. 

"Fisk,"  said  he,  "that  is  all  very  nice,  those  birds 
that  are  warbling  so  beautifully.  But  they  have  to 
be  fed,  every  last  bird  in  those  cages." 

But  Jimmy  was  a  fellow  who  didn't  count  the 
cost  of  bird-seed,  or  of  anything  else  for  that  matter. 
When  the  Plymouth  Rock  was  finally  turned  into  an 
excursion  boat,  he  would  parade  the  decks  dressed 
in  an  Admiral's  uniform.  He  liked  to  swell  around 
in  his  fine  clothes  and  get  the  women  to  gaze  at  him. 

The  way  he  carried  on  with  Josie  Mansfield  and 
those  other  bad  women  was  a  caution.  I  think  it 
hurt  our  Wall  Street  business.  Because  it  drove 
away  from  us  some  people  who  might  have  gone 
in  with  us  on  our  deals.  But  it  didn't  do  any  good 
to  scold  Jimmy,  he  was  that  set  in  his  way. 

I  tried  it.  I  had  a  talk  with  him  once  or  twice 
about  his  soul.  Because  in  our  class  meeting  over 
in  my  Fourth  Avenue  Church,  soul-saving  used  to 
be  a  subject  we  brought  up  a  good  deal.  Wednesday 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          337 

was  class-meeting  night  in  our  church.  I  didn't 
feel  right  when  I  missed  a  meeting.  I  never  was 
a  regular  leader.  I  didn't  feel  I  could  give  the 
time  to  looking  after  the  spiritual  welfare  of  each 
and  every  member  of  the  class,  as  a  leader  should. 
But  I  was  often  called  upon  to  lead  the  meeting, 
when  the  regular  leader  was  away.  And  at  these 
times  I  used  to  direct  the  thought  of  the  meeting 
into  lines  of  practical  religious  work,  such  as  soul- 
saving  and  the  like.  Of  course,  in  our  prayer  and 
class  meetings  we  didn't  limit  our  testimonies 
and  prayers  to  this  one  line;  because  religion  has  to 
do  with  personal  growth  in  grace  as  well  as  to  the 
practical  work  of  carrying  the  gospel  to  others. 
More  than  once,  when  I've  had  to  lead  the  class- 
meeting,  the  subject  has  turned  to  the  subject  of 
the  Pentecostal  blessing.  I  have  in  mind  one  night 
in  particular.  A  good  soul  in  the  meeting  who  had 
once  experienced  holiness  —  she  had  come  out  as 
a  Perfectionist  —  was  now  beneath  a  cloud  because 
she  had  lost  her  sense  of  sanctification.  As  leader 
of  the  meeting,  I  asked  her  if  she  had  also  lost  her 
sense  of  justification.  She  said,  no;  it  was  the  second 
step  which  she  had  fallen  back  from.  Then  as  leader 
I  tried  to  get  her  to  trust  justifying  grace  and  the 
smitten  rock,  as  a  fountain  now  of  entire  sanctifica- 
tion.  Because,  if  we  have  the  witness  of  our  adoption 
and  a  faith  that  shows  our  sins  forgiven,  then  the 
all-quickening  word  assures  us  of  the  further  step 


338         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

into  sanctity  and  into  perfect  liberty  from  the  power 
of  bondage.  Before  the  meeting  came  to  an  end 
that  night,  the  victory  had  been  won  —  she  was 
once  more  firmly  on  the  rock.  But  the  practical 
side  of  the  gospel  messages  is  not  to  be  overlooked; 
and  I  thereupon  took  occasion,  when  she  had  got 
back  onto  the  mountain  summit,  to  turn  her  thoughts 
to  the  blessedness  of  working  for  the  Master  and  of 
going  forth  into  the  vineyard  and  gathering  precious 
sheaves. 

This  started  me  also.  I  thought  of  those  around 
me  in  business  life,  who  were  as  yet  unreached 
-  who  had  never  yet  experienced  regeneration  and 
the  cleansing  gift.  Then  and  there  I  made  a  vow, 
with  the  cloud  of  witnesses  looking  down  upon  me 
from  the  battlements  of  bliss,  that  if  grace  should 
be  given  me  for  the  task,  I  would  try  to  save  at 
least  one  soul  in  the  year  that  was  then  before  me. 
One  day,  accordingly,  when  I  thought  the  oppor 
tunity  was  favourable,  because  Fisk  and  I  were 
alone  in  the  office,  I  turned  the  talk  to  more 
serious  things.  Without  seeming  to  make  it  refer 
to  him,  I  told  of  cases  I  had  known,  where  unbeliev 
ing  men  had  been  mightily  wrought  upon  —  born 
again  as  it  were  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  and  given 
power  over  the  World,  the  Flesh  and  the  Devil. 
Because,  "Whilst  the  lamp  holds  out  to  burn,  the 
vilest  sinner  may  return." 

Jimmy  listened.     Fisk  could  be  serious  now  and 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          339 

then,  even  though  people  who  didn't  know  him  used 
to  suppose  he  was  nothing  but  a  boaster  and  a  maker 
of  jokes. 

"No,  Uncle,"  said  he,  when  I  finished;  "there 
isn't  any  hope  for  Jim  Fisk."  (He  used  to  call 
himself  "Jim  Jubilee,  Junior!"  That  was  when 
he  was  in  one  of  his  joking  moods.  But  he  didn't 
do  it  now.)  "I'm  a  gone  goose.  No  need  of  a 
fellow  bulldozing  himself.  Might  as  well  look  the 
thing  in  the  face.  I  am  too  fond  of  this  world. 
If  I've  got  to  choose  between  the  other  world  and  this, 
I  take  this.  Some  people  are  born  to  be  good, 
other  people  are  born  to  be  bad.  I  was  born  to  be 
bad.  As  to  the  World,  the  Flesh  and  the  Devil, 
I'm  on  good  terms  with  all  three.  If  God  Almighty 
is  going  to  damn  us  men  because  we  love  the  women, 
then  let  him  go  ahead  and  do  it.  I'm  having  a 
good  time  now,  and  if  I  have  got  to  pay  for  it  here 
after,  why,  I  suppose  it's  no  more  than  fair  shakes; 
and  I'll  take  what's  coming  to  me.  As  to  the  vain 
pomp  and  glory  of  the  world,  I  have  covetous  desires 
of  the  same.  So  there  you  are." 

I  tried  to  tell  him  that  he  was  not  yet  beyond  re 
demption.  He  was  despairing  of  himself  more  than 
was  any  use  of.  He  was  still  on  the  mercy  side  of  the 
Judgment,  and  cases  had  been  known  where  an 
eleventh-hour  repentance  was  efficacious.  If  he 
sought  prayerfully,  he  would  be  given  grace  to 
mortify  those  corrupt  affections. 


340         THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

He  answered  that  he  didn't  want  them  mortified. 
He  said  that,  though  I  might  be  one  of  those  who 
were  born  to  be  saved  —  for  theological  mysteries 
were  something  he  didn't  know  very  much  about  - 
he  was  sure  that  he  himself  was  born  to  be  damned. 
And  that  it  wasn't  any  use  for  him  to  try  to  be  any 
thing  else. 

For  a  spell  after  my  talk  with  him,  I  don't  know 
but  what  Jimmy  was  a  little  more  sober  than  usual 
in  his  walk  and  conversation.  But  it  didn't  last 
long.  A  morning  or  two  later,  down  he  comes  to 
the  office  in  his  great  barouche,  driven  by  a  Negro 
coachman;  and  there  on  the  seat  beside  him  was 
that  Josie  Mansfield.  She  was  decorated  all  over 
with  the  rich  stuffs  he  had  bought  her.  For,  when 
buying  things  for  women,  money  spilled  out  of 
Fisk  like  corn  out  of  a  broken  sack.  In  fact,  Jimmy 
was  almost  as  proud  of  her  fine  dresses  as  he  was  of 
his  own  clothes. 

''Before  she  met  me,"  he  used  to  brag,  "Josie 
didn't  have  anything  but  a  black-and-white  silk 
gown  to  her  name.  And  now  look  at  her:  I  pay 
the  bills  for  her  to  go  down  to  Long  Branch  and  drive 
along  the  Avenue.  Oh,  I  tell  you,  Uncle,  when 
Jimmy  Fisk  starts  out  to  do  a  thing,  he  does  it  up 
brown!" 

It  got  so  after  a  while  that  he  was  spending  almost 
as  much  time  with  Josie  and  her  set  as  he  was  with 
us  in  the  offi.ce.  Why,  he  set  her  up  in  a  house  on 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         341 

West  Twenty-third  Street,  and  used  almost  to  live 
there.  It  was  the  same  side  of  the  street  as  his 
own  house,  and  only  a  few  doors  beyond.  He  used 
to  say  that  he  himself  didn't  know  which  place  to 
call  home.  Besides  her  and  Nellie  Peris  and  Bella 
Lane  and  the  rest  of  them,  he  got  to  bringing  over 
ballet  dancers  from  Paris.  (He  bought  an  Opera 
House  over  on  the  corner  of  Eighth  Avenue  and 
Twenty-third  Street,  where  he  gave  French  Opera. 
He  used  to  sit  in  a  box,  or  behind  the  scenes,  as 
Manager-in-chief.)  And  he  made  them  into  his 
concubines.  He  didn't  have  any  more  shame  in  it 
all  than  a  cow  does  over  a  bastard  calf. 

I  didn't  give  up  with  that  one  effort  to  show  him 
the  error  of  his  ways.  And  when  I  think  of  the  end 
those  light  women  brought  him  to,  I'm  glad  that  I 
at  least  discharged  my  duty.  I  tried  to  tell  him 
that  those  women  were  after  him  only  for  his  money; 
that  they  were  nothing  but  men-traps,  and  that 
these  petticoat  affairs  of  his  would  get  him  into 
trouble.  I  might  as  well  have  talked  to  the  wind. 

"  Kissing  is  all  right,  Jimmy,"  I  used  to  say  to  him, 
"in  the  calf  time  of  a  fellow's  life.  But  when 
you're  grown  up,  what  you  want  is  not  those  ladies 
of  pleasure,  but  a  good  pillow  mate.  The  right  kind 
of  women  are  not  seen  around  opera  houses  and 
such  places.  Women,"  said  I,  "are  like  poultry; 
they  shouldn't  gad  too  far  from  the  front  gate." 

But   you    couldn't    argue    with    him.     "I'm    the 


342          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

gander  can  take  care  of  those  geese, "  he  used  to  say. 
"I  travel  on  my  shape,  Uncle;  and  I  don't  make 
any  bones  of  saying  that  I  like  these  scarlet  women 
-  they're  approachable.  Some  parts  of  your  Bible 
suit  me  to  a  T.  I  worship  in  the  Synagogue  of  the 
Libertines." 

He  wore  his  hair  in  fancy  ways  -  "kiss  curls," 
he  used  to  call  them  —  and  had  the  idea  that  he  was 
the  buck  to  take  a  lady's  fancy.  The  way  he  went 
on  was  something  scandalous.  I  tried  my  best: 
"They  that  yield  themselves  unto  sin  are  the  ser 
vants  of  sin,"  said  I.  "Sin  should  not  have  domin 
ion  over  you,  Jimmy.  Because  you  are  not  under 
law  but  under  grace."  It  didn't  do  a  speck  of  good. 
He  might  be  serious  whilst  I  was  talking.  But  let 
one  of  those  French  light-heels  come  tripping  along 
he'd  up  and  after  her  in  a  jiffy. 

He  even  boasted  that  it  was  for  the  sake  of  helping 
our  business  that  he  romped  with  those  loose  women 
the  way  he  did.  Such  outlandish  things  as  he  used 
to  think  up!  For  instance,  there  was  that  deal 
with  the  new  Knoxville  Railroad,  then  starting  up 
out  West.  Fisk  said : 

"Uncle,  there's  nothing  like  knowing  how  to  do 
things.  Just  see  what  a  fine  combination  we've 
got  —  our  clique  here  —  you,  me,  Jay,  and  the 
rest  of  our  crowd.  Because  here,  through  our 
partnership  with  Big  Bill"  (he  meant  Bill  Tweed), 
"we've  got  New  York  City  under  our  thumb;  we 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL    DREW          343 

could  even  send  a  man  to  Abraham's  bosom,  if  it 
suited  our  purpose,  without  risk  of  the  hangman. 
And  now  through  me  we've  got  the  power  that 
comes  through  women!  One  hair  of  a  woman, 
Uncle,  will  draw  more  than  a  pair  of  bay  steers. 
Why,  just  now,  though  you  fellows  didn't  know  it, 
I'm  getting  a  line  on  that  Knoxville  deal  that's  like 
to  turn  us  a  fine  penny." 

"How's  that?"     I  asked. 

"Why,"  said  he,  "you  know  that  connection  of 
theirs  with  the  soft-coal  district,  which  has  been  in 
the  air  some  time.  If  that  goes  through,  it  would 
be  the  right  thing  to  load  up  with  some  of  the  shares 
of  that  road." 

"Well,"  said  I,  "is  it  going  through  ?" 

"There  you  are,"  he  replied;  "that's  just  where 
I'm  getting  in  my  fine  work.  Because  there's  a 
young  chap  in  town,  a  nephew,  or  something  or 
other,  of  one  of  the  big  men  in  that  road.  He  knows 
what's  what  in  that  railroad,  and  whether  this  line 
into  the  soft-coal  district  is  going  through.  It's  up 
to  us  to  corkscrew  the  news  out  of  him." 

"How    can    we    do    it?"     I    asked.     "Money?" 

"No,  that  would  be  inartistic.  It's  women  that's 
the  bait  for  the  average  man.  Leave  it  to  me, 
Uncle,  leave  it  to  me." 

Some  days  later,  in  one  of  our  councils  together, 
Fisk  came  in,  spry  and  merry.  He  told  us  he  had 
got  the  news  at  last. 


344         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

"News  of  what  ?"  we  asked. 

"  Why,  news  of  that  soft-coal  connection  with  the 
Ohio  River.     It's  going  through/'  said  he. 

"Are  you  sure?"     I  asked.     "How  did  you  get 
it?" 

"Oh,  through  my  Josie." 

"Josie?"  I  said;  "who's  that?" 

"Why,  my  Twenty-third  Street  charmer.  Not 
that  she  herself  could  handle  a  lad  like  this  Horace  - 
I  guess  his  name  was  Horace;  something  like  that, 
anyhow.  Because,  from  what  I  gather,  he  was 
quite  a  shy  lad  —  one  of  your  *  mother's  boys.' 
Josie  is  too  plump  to  take  the  fancy  of  that  kind. 
He  needs  the  slender  and  artful  lass,  if  he's  going 
to  be  roped  in.  So  she  got  Nellie  to  undertake  the 
job.  Nellie  is  the  girl  for  an  artistic  piece  of  work. 
She's  playful  enough  —  after  the  ice  is  broken  - 
and  can  give  a  fellow  a  lumptious  time.  First 
along,  though,  she  has  a  bashful  way  about  her 
that  just  takes  with  a  certain  type  of  man.  And 
I  guess  this  Horace  was  that  type.  Put  Nellie  in 
one  of  her  neggledeegee  gowns  and  the  lights  low  all 
through  the  house,  she  could  win  over  St.  Anthony 
himself.  She  has  a  way  about  her  of  backing  off 
at  the  start,  that's  very  fetching.  But  once  started, 
Uncle,  she  has  got  the  prettiest  way  of  saying,  '  My 
nose  itches'  when  she  wants  more  kisses*  of  any  girl  I 
think  I  ever  met.  And  I've  met  a  lot.  On  Twenty- 
third  Street  they  belong  to  the  tribe  of  Amorites.  And 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          345 

this  dear  young  Horace,  after  the  acquaintance  was 
once  made,  didn't  find  any  difficulty,  I'll  warrant,  in 
making  progress  swiftly.  In  fact,  Nellie  herself 
helped  the  acquaintance  along.  She  got  him  to  stay 
at  the  house  all  night,  on  some  pretext  or  other. 
Before  the  night  was  over  he  told  her  everything  she 
wanted  to  know.  The  railroad  into  the  soft-coal 
region  is  going  through.  He  plumped  the  news  right 
out  at  her.  I  don't  blame  him.  I'd  have  told  too. 
A  nice  pair  of  dumplings  - 

"Now  see  here,  Jimmy,"  said  I,  breaking  in  on 
him;  "if  that  railway  connection  is  sure,  it's  time 
we  laid  in  a  line  of  the  stock.  A  thing  of  that  sort 
has  a  way  of  getting  out,  if  you  wait  too  long." 

And  it  did.  The  point  on  that  particular  stock, 
which  he  had  such  pains  to  worm  out  of  that  young 
man,  Horace,  really  didn't  help  us  much.  As  I 
remember  now,  after  taking  out  the  brokers'  com 
missions  and  so  on,  I  don't  believe  any  of  us  made 
a  cent  on  the  deal.  The  trouble  was,  another  stallion 
had  been  whinnering  around  Fisk's  mare,  so  to 
speak.  That  Josie  of  his  was  getting  another  lover, 
and  wanted  to  let  this  other  in  also  on  the  good 
things.  As  Jimmy  said  to  Ned  Stokes  (he  was  the 
one),  "two  trains  can't  run  in  opposite  directions 
on  the  same  track."  So  when  Josie  gave  away  the 
same  secrets  to  Ned  which  she  gave  to  Jimmy  and 
our  crowd,  it  didn't  do  any  of  us  any  good.  Because 
the  advantage  of  inside  information  in  Wall  Street 


346         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

dickers  is,  that   you    and  your  clique  are  the  only 
ones  that  know  it. 

"We're  hooked  by  a  cow,"  said  I,  when  it  was 
seen  that  this  deal  in  stocks  wasn't  going  to  turn  out 
well.  "What  did  I  tell  you,  Jimmy?  They  that 
are  in  the  flesh  cannot  please  God.  For  to  be  car 
nally  minded  is  death;  but  to  be  spiritually  minded 
is  life  and  peace." 


XXXIV 

ETLE     disappointments,    such     as    the    one 
I    have    just    wrote    about,   always    come 
in    the    life    of    a    speckilator.     In   a   big 
harvest  there  are  always  some  weeds.     And  I  had 
learned  by  this  time  to  bear  up  when  the  market 
turned  against  me.     The  very  night,  when  we  found 
that  our  railroad  speckilation  in  the  soft-coal  field 
was  going  against  us,  I  was  walking  in  my  sitting 
room  at  home,  my  hands  behind  my  back,  humming 
out  loud  that  comforting  hymn: 

"From  every  stormy  wind  that  blows" 
Danck    spoke    up  —  I    mean     my    grandson,    Dan 
Chamberlain.     I    used     to     call    him    Danck,    for 
short. 

"Pop,"  said  he,  "why  in  the  world  are  you  ever 
lastingly  singing  that,  'From  every  stormy  wind 
that  blows'?" 

"Because  it's  true,  Danck,"  said  I,  "It's 
true: 

'There,  there  on  eagle  wings  we  soar, 
And  sense  and  sin  molest  no  more, 
And  heaven  comes  down  our  souls  to  greet, 
And  Glory  crowns  the  mercy  seat." 

347 


348          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

I  was  happy,  anyhow,  these  days.  Because  I 
was  about  to  celebrate  my  golden  wedding.  I  and 
my  wife,  just  two  years  before,  had  been  out  to 
Drewville,  two  miles  this  side  of  Carmel,  to  the 
golden  wedding  of  my  brother  Tom  and  his  wife, 
on  their  farm.  I  said  then,  if  the  Lord  would  spare 
me  and  my  wife  to  see  the  day,  we  too  would  cele 
brate,  when  the  time  came.  Our  lives  were  spared. 
The  fine  big  house  on  Union  Square  was  just  the 
place  to  hold  a  big  celebration  in.  And  on  a  Friday 
night  in  March,  the  next  year,  I  think  it  was,  after 
the  founding  of  my  theological  seminary,  the  great 
event  came  off. 

I  was  sorry  that  it  fell  on  a  Friday.  I  think  it 
brought  some  bad  luck  with  it.  For  instance,  some 
of  my  neighbours  who  lived  in  the  aristocratic  section 
around  Union  Square  and  Fifth  Avenue  --  Robert 
Goelet  lived  across  Seventeenth  Street  from  me,  on 
the  upper  corner  —  didn't  come.  They  sent  notes 
of  regret.  This  may  not  have  been  altogether  on 
account  of  Friday's  luck,  either.  Some  of  the  news 
papers  about  this  time  were  beginning  to  pitch  into 
me.  They  were  shameless  in  the  things  they  said. 
There  was  the  Nation,  for  instance.  Just  as  I 
was  beginning  to  make  preparations  for  my 
golden  wedding,  and  was  straining  the  traces  to 
make  it  a  social  success,  that  paper  came  down 
on  me  like  a  thousand  of  brick.  Speaking  of 
the  operations  of  me  and  my  ring  in  Wall  Street,  it 


THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          349 

said,     soon     after    our     campaign    of    locking    up 
greenbacks: 

These  men  in  the  course  of  these  operations 
had  ruined  hundreds  of  men  in  and  out  of  Wall 
Street,  had  arrested  the  whole  business  of  the  country 
for  nearly  two  weeks,  had  brought  the  banks  to  the 
verge  of  suspension,  and  seriously  threatened  the 
national  credit.  Foremost  among  them  is  said  to 
have  been  a  wealthy  gentleman  of  advanced  years, 
of  eminent  piety,  a  builder  of  churches,  a  former 
treasurer  of  the  Erie  Company,  and  a  fit  colleague 
of  the  speculative  Executive  Committee.  It  is 
possible  that  the  perpetrators  of  these  outrages  cannot 
be  reached  through  our  criminal  courts;  it  is  possible 
that  the  financial  community  will  continue  to  allow 
itself  to  be  dragooned  and  plundered  by  these  organ 
ized  robber-gangs;  but  it  cannot  be  that  respectable 
men  will  countenance  such  deeds  by  social  recog 
nition  of  the  doers.  It  makes  but  little  difference 
whether  the  fortunes  thus  acquired  are  spent  in 
building  of  churches  and  endowment  of  theological 
seminaries  —  all  good  men  should  unite  in  treating 
the  owners  as  infamous. 

/ 

But  though  some  of  my  neighbours  around  Union 
Square  didn't  come  out  the  way  I  had  hoped,  still 
my  golden  wedding  was  a  success.  The  reporters 
came.  My  house  was  big  and  on  the  corner  of 
the  street.  More  than  that,  I  was  a  big  man 
down  in  the  financial  district.  So  their  write-ups 
of  the  affair  the  next  day  —  some  of  them  —  were 


350          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

fine.     I  was  particularly  pleased  at    the    nice  way 
my  New  York  Advocate  described  the  affair.     And 
it  didn't  have  to    stretch    the    truth,    either.     The 
golden  wedding  was  celebrated  at  our  residence  in 
the  presence  of  a  brilliant  assemblage.     The  very 
rare  event  was  welcomed  with  the  most  hearty  con 
gratulations,  costly  presents  were  showered  in  from 
dear    and    intimate    friends,    and    throughout    the 
splendid   festivities   I   and   my  wife,   the   aged   and 
respectable  couple  whose  conjugal  days  have  been 
so  happily  bound  in  one    for  half  a  century,  were 
the  recipients  of  the  most  affectionate  compliments. 
Not  only  were  the  drawing  rooms  of  the  mansion 
brilliantly  illuminated,  but  also,  suspended  from  the 
ceiling,  were  beautiful  wreaths  attached  to  the  globes, 
the    flowers    indicating    by   letters    thereon,    that    I 
and  Mrs.  Drew  were  married  in  the  year  1820,  and 
the  attendance  that  night  comprised  many  of  the 
relatives  of  the  honourable  lady  and  myself,  whom 
all  assembled  to  honour.     The  toilets  of  the  ladies 
were  exceedingly   handsome.     The    reception  com 
menced    shortly    before    ten    o'clock.     I    and    Mrs. 
Drew,   the  latter  attired    in   lavender  silk   covered 
with  white  point  lace,  and   both  looking  very  hale 
and    pleasant,    warmly    received    our    friends,  who 
were  profuse  in  their  earnest  congratulations.     Rev 
erend  Dr.  Ridgeway,  of  our  St.  Paul's  Church  on 
Fourth    Avenue,    on    behalf   of   his    congregation, 
presented  in  a  feeling  address  a  very  appropriate 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          351 

gift  in  the  shape  of  a  gorgeous  basket  of  flowers, 
of  solid  silver  and  gold,  emblematic  of  the  intrinsic 
and  solid  worth  of  the  recipients,  wrought  with 
beautiful  forms  and  adorned  with  exquisite  tracery, 
symbols  of  those  natures  visited  by  grace,  and 
wrapped  with  the  flowers  and  fruits  of  domestic 
and  religious  fidelity.  On  the  bowl  were  the  words: 
"GOLDEN  WEDDING"  encircled  with  linden 
leaves,  emblems  of  constancy,  the  gift  being  adorned 
with  suitable  monograms.  The  Reverend  Mr. 
Foss  said  prayer,  which  being  concluded,  I  and 
Mrs.  Drew  mingled  with  our  numerous  guests  and 
proceeded  to  partake  of  an  elegant  repast.  Alto 
gether,  the  event  was  one  to  be  remembered  with 
pleasure. 

But  it  wasn't  over  yet.  When  the  speech-making 
was  through  with,  I  told  the  people  to  go  out  into 
the  dining  room.  "I  hope  you're  as  hungry  as  a 
meat-axe  —  every  one  of  you,"  said  I.  "I  want  you 
to  put  inside  all  the  pork  and  potatoes  you  can  carry 
away."  I  called  it  "pork  and  potatoes,"  just  to 
surprise  them,  when  they  should  get  into  the  room 
and  see  the  spread  of  eatables  I  had  provided  for 
the  occasion.  For  it  wasn't  any  of  your  "big  boast 
and  small  roast"  with  me  that  night.  The  meats 
were  all  of  the  finest  —  none  of  your  bull-beef  on 
my  table.  And  I,  as  host  of  the  party,  spurred  up 
their  appetites.  For  I  was  in  such  light  spirits  on 
that  occasion,  I  didn't  care  how  much  they  ate. 


352          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

"I  don't  want  anybody  to  be  under  my  roof  this 
night,"  said  I,  "who  can't  play  a  good  knife  and 
fork  at  meals.  So  set  to,"  I  added,  in  a  cheery 
voice.  "  Get  your  nose  in  the  manger,  there,  Brother 
So-and-so;  let  me  see  how  much  oats  you  can  get 
outside  of."  I  have  always  had  a  knack  of  getting 
people  in  a  good  humour. 

I  felt  glad  that  the  thing  was  going  off  so  fine. 
Just  the  day  before,  my  friend,  Brother  McClintock, 
had  died.  I  had  been  afraid  that  this  might  cast 
a  gloom  over  the  affair.  But  I  kept  the  people  in 
good  spirits  by  shaking  hands  and  mixing  up  with 
them.  And  everybody  said,  when  the  hour  came  to 
go  home,  that  they  had  had  just  a  grand  time. 

The  thing  cost  like  sixty.  But  it  was  worth  the 
money.  Besides,  I  was  by  this  time  in  a  position 
where  I  could  stand  a  big  expense  now  and  then 
without  sweating.  Why,  during  my  Erie  days, 
there  was  one  item  of  profit  alone,  from  the  Buffalo, 
Bradford  &  Pittsburg  Railroad  deal,  which  amounted 
to  a  fine  penny.  We  picked  up  that  little  branch 
line  for  a  song,  and  then,  as  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  Erie  Railroad,  rented  it  to  the  Erie  at  a  sum 
which  brought  us  in  a  hundred  and  forty  thousand 
dollars  a  year  clean  profit.  For  another,  there  was 
my  deal  with  the  Lake  Erie  line  of  steamers.  As 
head  and  front  of  Erie  —  I  was  not  only  its  Treas- 
surer  then,  but  also  its  Managing  Director  —  I 
made  the  Erie  road  hire  that  steamboat  line  from 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW          353 

me.     And  the  profits  from  that  deal  were  six  hundred 
thousand  dollars. 

I  tell  these  things  in  order  to  show  that  I  was  one 
of  the  really  big  men  in  the  financial  community. 
I  could  foot  the  bill  for  one  wedding  celebration  or 
for  a  hundred  of  them,  and  hardly  know  that  I  had 
spent  the  money. 


XXXV 

BY  THIS  time  the  boys  down  on  the  Street 
had  got  to  supposing  that  I  was  more 
or  less  of  a  back  number. 

"Uncle  Daniel/'  they  said,  "is  a  toothless  old 
dog.  He  will  growl,  but  his  bite  doesn't  amount 
to  much  any  more.  From  now  on  he's  no  good 
except  to  poke  around  the  Street,  his  hands  behind 
his  back,  and  look  wise." 

But  I  showed  them  that  I  wasn't  dead  and  done 
for  just  yet.  There  was  still  some  fire  in  my  brains. 
I  had  more  tricks  and  dodges  to  show  them.  As 
Marsden,  for  one,  found  out.  Billy  Marsden  had 
been  one  of  my  agents  in  Erie  speckilations.  He 
had  made  a  nice  sum  of  money  for  himself  out  of 
those  deals.  But  I  didn't  intend  that  he  should 
keep  it.  He  had  made  that  money  by  hanging  onto 
my  coat  tails,  so  to  speak.  From  which  it  really 
belonged  to  me  more  than  it  did  to  him.  So  I  set 
about  to  get  it.  I  got  Marsden  to  head  a  buying 
movement  in  Erie.  I  went  in  with  him  in  the  deal. 
We  bought  well-nigh  every  share  that  was  loose  in 
the  New  York  market.  Then,  whilst  Marsden  was 
still  buying,  I,  all  unbeknownst  to  him,  began  to 

354 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW          355 

unload  my  holdings  at  the  nice  figure  the  stock 
was  then  reaching.  Marsden  took  my  offerings 
of  stock,  until  I  had  saddled  so  much  of  it  onto  him 
that  his  money  began  to  give  out.  Then  he  got 
suspicious.  He  began  to  accuse  me  of  playing  fast 
and  loose  with  him. 

"Drew,"  said  he,  "some  one  is  doing  me  dirt. 
You  and  I  are  now  the  only  holders  of  loose  stock  in 
the  market;  and  still  it's  being  offered  to  me  in  large 
blocks.  You  snake-in-the-grass,  I'll  lay  that  it's  you." 

I  tried  to  tell  him  that  it  wasn't;  that  he  was 
barking  up  the  wrong  tree.  The  stock  was  probably 
coming  from  distant  sources  of  supply  that  we  hadn't 
reckoned  on.  If  he  would  only  keep  on  buying 
for  a  few  days  longer,  it  would  probably  all  be 
absorbed  and  the  floating  supply  exhausted.  But 
he  became  more  and  more  suspicious. 

Finally  one  day  he  arranged  a  meeting  with  me 
in  my  office  at  an  early  hour.  He  said  it  might  be 
a  meeting  that  would  last  some  little  time,  and  that 
therefore  we  must  be  free  from  interruptions.  I 
suspected  he  was  going  to  try  some  scheme  on  me. 
So  I  thought  up  a  trick  that  would  meet  him  half 
way.  I  told  him  to  come;  I'd  be  glad  to  see  him, 
and  would  be  with  him  as  long  as  he  wished. 

On  the  day  appointed,  he  came  early  to  my  Broad 
Street  offi.ce.  We  went  into  my  private  office.  He 
turned  and  locked  the  door.  I  asked  him  why  he 
locked  the  door. 


356         THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

"  I'll  tell  you  why,"  said  he,  and  he  began  to  stamp 
like  a  horse  that's  got  pin-worms;  "I'm  going  to 
find  out  whether  you  have  been  playing  me  square 
or  not.  And  I'm  taking  this  means  to  find  out. 
Just  before  coming  over  here,  I  issued  orders  to  my 
brokers  to  go  onto  the  floor  of  the  Exchange  and  offer 
to  buy  Erie.  Now  I'm  going  to  keep  you  here 
behind  lock  and  key  for  a  while,  to  see  if  the  market 
is  still  supplied  with  Erie  when  you're  out  of  it. 
You  don't  stir  out  of  this  room  until  my  brokers 
have  had  a  chance  to  see." 

I  made  believe  to  be  hurt  by  his  unkind  suspicions. 
I  said  I  didn't  want  to  leave  the  room,  or  issue  any 
selling  orders  to  my  brokers;  because  I  wasn't 
doing  any  selling.  But  it  hurt  me  to  think  that 
my  old  friend  and  partner  had  lost  faith  in  me. 

"Drew,"  said  he,  "you  lie  faster  than  a  horse 
can  trot.  It  isn't  going  to  do  you  any  good  to  be 
soft-soapy.  That  door  isn't  going  to  be  unlocked 
till  I  ferret  this  thing  out." 

I  spoke  back.  He  answered  me.  Soon  we  got 
all  het  up  in  an  argument.  I  made  believe  to  send 
home  my  remarks  by  pounding  on  the  table.  For 
I  had  suspected  Marsden's  scheme;  and  so,  before 
he  came,  I  had  told  one  of  my  clerks  to  place  himself 
just  outside  the  door  of  my  private  office,  and  every 
time  he  heard  me  pound  on  the  table,  he  should 
send  word  to  my  brokers  on  the  floor  of  the  Exchange 
to  sell  a  thousand  shares  of  Erie. 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW          357 

Marsden  didn't  suspect  my  scheme  in  the  least. 
He  was  scampering  around  the  room,  nimble  as  a 
new-gelt  pig.  Every  time  I'd  answer  him  good  and 
hot,  and  pound  with  my  hand  on  the  desk,  he  got 
all  the  hotter,  and  spoke  back.  He  kept  the  thing 
going.  I  was  willing.  It  gave  his  brokers  time  to 
take  all  the  Erie  off  my  hands.  Every  once  in  a 
while  I'd  make  believe  to  get  all  het  up  again,  and 
hit  the  desk.  This  lasted  well  into  the  day. 

By  and  by  Marsden  looked  at  his  watch.  "Well, 
it's  pretty  near  closing  time  on  the  Stock  Exchange; 
so  I'm  willing  now  to  let  you  out  of  the  room.  I 
want  to  hear  from  my  brokers,  and  see  if  they  have 
had  any  offerings  of  Erie." 

I  told  him  he  was  welcome  to  go  and  find  out, 
so  far  as  I  was  concerned.  I  was  glad  I'd  had  the 
chance  to  prove  my  innocence.  "You  suspected 
me  unjustly,  you  young  spunkie,"  said  I.  "And 
now  you'll  find  out.  You'll  see  that  it's  been  some 
body  else  who  has  been  unloading  that  stock  onto 
you.  Leastwise,  you'll  now  see  that  it  hasn't  been 
me."  Marsden  went  away. 

The  deal  nearly  broke  him.  In  fact,  my  scheme 
was  a  little  too  successful.  During  that  red  hot 
argument,  I  had  loaded  his  brokers  with  such  blocks 
of  the  stock  that  when  Marsden  finally  got  back 
to  the  scene,  it  crippled  him  up.  He  couldn't  take 
care  of  the  purchases  which  his  brokers  had  made. 
And  when  it  came  to  settle  the  thing,  I  had  to  let 


358          THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

Marsden  off  with  only  part  payment  of  his  obliga 
tions  to  me.  And  in  doing  so  I  had  to  let  the  cat 
out  of  the  bag.  But  I  had  a  good  chuckle  over  the 
success  of  my  joke.  I  always  did  enjoy  a  joke, 
anyhow. 

Speaking  of  jokes,  I  think  one  of  the  best  funs 
I  ever  had  was  when  I  got  the  best  of  some  of  the 
church  brethren.  A  number  of  them  had  got  to 
coming  to  my  house  and  talking  Wall  Street  talk. 
They  knew  I  was  one  of  the  inside  operators,  and 
that  points  from  me  were  worth  their  weight  in  gold. 
(Everybody  is  kin  to  a  rich  man.)  Even  some  of 
the  professors  out  in  my  theological  seminary  in 
New  Jersey  were  getting  the  Wall  Street  fever.  On 
their  visits  at  my  house,  whilst  the  talk  of  a  winter's 
evening  would  be  on  matters  of  faith  and  doctrine, 
the  subject  in  some  way  or  other  would  get  switched 
off  to  modern  life  and  to  the  doings  of  Wall  Street. 
First  along,  I  was  tender  about  having  my  business 
affairs  brought  into  our  conversation.  But  I  soon 
saw  that  they  were  willing,  if  they  had  the  chance, 
to  try  a  flier  or  two  in  the  Street. 

So  one  time  when  a  lot  of  them  were  coming 
pretty  often,  and  seeing  that  I  was  starting  out  just 
then  on  a  Bearing-down  campaign,  I  allowed  my 
talks  with  them  to  turn  sort  of  gradual-like  to  present- 
day  affairs,  and  to  Wall  Street.  Then  I'd  say,  in 
sort  of  an  off-hand  way,  "I'm  willing  to  tell  one  of 
the  secrets  of  the  Street  if  you'll  keep  it  dark.  An 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW          359 

upward  movement  is  just  now  being  engineered. 
Of  course,  only  those  who  are  on  the  inside  know  it. 
The  outside  public  thinks  that  the  market  is  going 
the  other  way.  Those  who  are  on  the  inside  take 
advantage  of  this  ignorance.  People  who  buy  now 
will  be  in  on  the  killing,  when  the  butchering  time 
arrives.  Brother  so-and-so,  I  have  given  you  this 
little  tip,  because  you  and  I  have  known  each  other 
so  long.  But  don't  tell  anybody  else!"  Then  a 
day  or  two  later,  when  another  one  of  the  brethren 
would  be  visiting  me,  I'd  say  to  him  the  same  thing. 
And  I  was  a  good  midwife  at  the  business,  being 
by  nature  patient  and  cool. 

In  this  way  there  set  in  a  good-sized  buying  move 
ment  in  those  particular  stocks  that  I  was  selling 
short  —  Wabash,  Quicksilver  Mining  Stock,  and 
shares  in  the  Canton  Land  Company  of  Baltimore. 
Because,  when  you  give  a  fellow  an  inside  tip  on 
the  market,  and  inform  him  that  he's  not  to  tell 
another  soul,  he's  going  to  let  at  least  three  or  four 
others  in  on  the  secret.  Those  three  or  four  others 
tell  their  friends,  also.  And  the  thing  spreads  like 
a  fire  in  the  woods. 

Well,  a  short  horse  is  soon  curried.  When  I 
had  got  the  thing  fixed  up,  I  went  and  dumped  onto 
the  market  some  jags  of  stock  big  enough  to  break 
the  price  a  few  points.  That  was  enough  to  start 
the  fall.  Because  these  brethren  were  not  very 
plentifully  stored  with  this  world's  goods.  Their 


360         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

margins  were  soon  exhausted.     They  were  sold  out. 
I  covered  my  shorts  at  a  nice  low  figure. 

I  think  it  was  one  of  these  fellows  from  my  theo 
logical  seminary  that  was  meant  in  a  little  skit 
that  appeared  in  the  puhlic  prints  about  this  time. 
I  give  it  here  because  it  shows  that  a  person  should 
not  go  into  Wall  Street  dickerings  unless  he  first 
knows  the  ins  and  outs: 

He  was  a  long,  lank  countryman, 
And  he  stoppeth  one  or  two: 
"I'm  not  acquaint  in  these  yeere  parts, 
And  I'm  a-looking  fur  Daniel  Drew. 

"I'm  a  stranger  in  the  vineyard, 
And  my  callin'  I  pursoo 
At  the  Institoot  at  Madison 
That  was  built  by  Daniel  Drew. 

"I'm  a  stranger  in  the  vineyard, 
An'  my  'arthly  wants  are  few; 
But  I  want  some  points  on  them  yer  sheares, 
An'  I'm  a-lookin'  fur  Daniel  Drew." 

Again  I  saw  that  labourer, 
Corner  of  Wall  and  New; 
He  was  looking  for  a  ferry-boat, 
And  not  for  Daniel  Drew. 

Upon  his  back  he  bore  a  sack, 
Inscribed  "Preferred  Q.  U."; 
Some  Canton  script  was  in  his  grip, 
A  little  Wabash  too. 


THE   BOOK    OF    DANIEL    DREW          361 

At  the  ferry  gate  I  saw  him  late, 
With  his  white  hat  askew, 
Paying  his  fare  with  a  registered  share 
Of  that  "Preferred  Q.  U." 

And  these  words  came  back  from  the  Hackensack: 
"Ef  yew  want  ter  gamble  a  few, 
Jest  git  in  yer  paw  at  a  game  of  draw, 
But  don't  take  a  hand  with  Drew." 

It  beats  all,  how  easy  people  get  the  Wall  Street 
fever.  If  folks  will  dance  they  must  pay  the  fiddler, 
that's  all. 


XXXVI 

I  WAS  so  busy  these  days,  the  Sabbath  was 
well-nigh  my  only  time  of  rest.  Week-days 
were  work  days.  Sometimes  I  even  worked 
nights.  After  the  Exchange  closed  on  Broad  Street, 
I  used  to  go  up  to  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  where 
a  dealer  had  opened  a  kind  of  evening  exchange  in 
the  basement  below  the  office.  Admission  was 
fifty  cents.  Shares  were  bought  and  sold  there  from 
seven  o'clock  to  nine.  When  Sunday  came,  there 
fore,  I  often  got  out  of  the  city  for  a  day  in  the  coun 
try.  But  I  made  it  a  habit  to  go  to  church,  even 
when  I  was  away  from  the  city.  I  remembered 
that  in  my  early  life  my  backslidings  had  come  about 
when  I  had  forgotten  to  go  to  meeting,  and  was 
breaking  the  Lord's  Day.  Sabbath  desecration  has 
been  my  besetting  sin  all  through  life,  anyhow. 
Time  and  time  again  I  have  had  to  ask  to  be  forgiven 
for  it.  So  I  now  tried,  like  every  watchful  Chris 
tian  should,  to  remember  my  weakness  and  to  guard 
against  it. 

It  was  on  one  of  those  outings  in  the  country,  I 
remember,  that  I  heard  a  sermon  which  made  con 
siderable  of  an  impression  on  me.  It  was  along 

362 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         363 

a  line  that  I  had  never  heard  before.  The  title  of 
the  sermon  was:  "Taking  God  into  Partnership 
with  You  in  Your  Business."  As  soon  as  the 
preacher  announced  his  subject,  I  pricked  up  my 
ears.  It  was  new.  Since  then  —  and  I'm  sorry 
to  say  it  —  many  of  the  sermons  I've  listened  to 
have  had  a  good  deal  of  this  new  and  strange  doc 
trine  in  them  —  "A  heaven  here  below,"  "A  better 
world  here  and  now,"  all  that  sort  of  stuff.  I  am 
missing  more  and  more  the  good,  old-time  hallelujah 
message.  The  preachers  seem  to  be  preaching 
nowadays  as  though  religion  had  to  do  with  the 
things  of  this  world,  whereas,  in  the  good  old  days, 
this  very  sin  of  worldliness  was  what  we  were  warned 
against.  I  don't  know  but  what  my  seminary  for 
the  training  of  preachers,  founded  with  my  own 
money,  is  taking  to  some  of  these  new-fangled  ideas. 

Well,  as  I  started  to  say,  this  sermon  was  about 
"Taking  God  into  Partnership  with  You."  It  was 
a  brand-new  thought  to  me.  I  was  struck  with  it. 
As  I  walked  home  that  day  from  the  church  to  the 
hotel  where  I  was  stopping,  I  talked  about  the  ser 
mon  with  a  friend  who  was  with  me. 

"Do  you  think,"  said  I,  "that  there  is  anything 
in  what  the  preacher  told  us  this  morning." 

"Why,  yes,"  said  he;  "I  think  there's  a  great  deal 
in  it.  I  think  the  Lord  would  like  to  be  a  companion 
in  our  business  life  as  well  as  in  our  home  and  church 
life." 


364         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

"And  do  you  think  he  would  really  bless  a  man 
who  took  him  into  partnership  with  him  ?"  I  asked. 
Because  I  wanted  to  be  sure  of  my  ground  before  I 
took  any  step  in  the  matter. 

"Yes,"  said  he;  "I  think  that  the  man  who  fol 
lowed  the  teachings  of  that  sermon  would  be 
blessed  in  the  long  run." 

That  made  up  my  mind.  I  went  to  my  room  in 
the  hotel,  and  then  and  there  decided  that  I  would 
give  the  message  of  that  Sunday  morning  a  try. 
Not  that  I  have  ever  been  a  man  to  jump  at  con 
clusions.  But  the  sermon  of  the  morning  had  come 
to  me  just  at  a  time  when  I  was  calculating  in  my 
mind  whether  or  not  to  go  into  a  certain  Wall  Street 
speckilation. 

As  I  have  wrote  somewheres  in  these  papers,  when 
I  went  in  with  Gould  and  Fisk  in  the  movement  to 
lock  up  greenbacks,  I  saw  that  they  were  working  for 
a  decline  in  prices.  I  fell  out  with  them.  But  they 
had  gone  on  with  their  plan.  And  I  had  been  won 
dering  whether  it  wouldn't  be  a  good  plan,  since 
they  were  working  on  the  short  side  of  the  market, 
for  me  also  to  put  out  a  line  of  shorts.  By  being 
independent,  I  might  clean  up  even  more  money 
than  if  I  had  stood  in  with  them;  because  then  I'd 
have  had  to  divide  my  profits  by  three,  whilst  now 
I  could  pocket  all  my  profits.  I  was  turning  the 
thing  over  in  my  mind  one  way  and  the  other,  without 
being  able  to  come  to  a  decision.  And  now,  suddenly, 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         365 

that  sermon  had  come  into  my  life.  It  seemed 
providential.  I  took  it  to  be  a  leading  of  the  spirit. 
So  that  night  in  my  room  in  the  hotel,  I  got  right 
down  on  my  marrow-bones  —  it's  knee  work  that 
brings  the  blessing,  every  time  —  and  told  the  Lord 
that  I  was  going  to  try  the  thing,  and  see  if  he  really 
wanted  to  be  taken  into  partnership  in  my  business. 
I  prayed  good  and  long  —  in  fact,  I  prayed  right  out 
loud,  so  earnest  was  I  in  the  deal  I  was  making  then 
and  there  with  the  Lord.  If  he  went  in  with  me  as 
a  partner,  and  helped  in  the  work,  I  saw,  from  all 
my  experience  in  partnerships,  that  I'd  have  to  divide 
up  some  of  the  profits  with  him.  So  I  told  him  that 
if  he'd  prosper  me  in  this  stock-market  move  that  I 
was  now  about  to  venture  into,  I'd  pay  up  in  cash  the 
promises  I  had  made  toward  the  benevolences  that 
my  name  had  been  attached  to.  Because,  although 
I  had  told  the  trustees  of  Drew  Theological  Semi 
nary,  when  they  named  the  school  after  me,  that  I 
would  give  them  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  as  an 
endowment,  I  had  kind  of  hated  to  pay  over  so  big  a 
sum  of  money.  For  the  reason  that  that  amount  put 
up  as  margins  in  stock-market  speckilations,  prom 
ised  to  earn  large  profits.  Even  though  I  was  now 
a  rich  man,  I  hated  to  take  that  amount  of  money 
out  of  my  business.  A  full  cup  must  be  carried 
steadily.  So,  instead  of  paying  over  to  them  the 
money  outright,  I  wrote  my  check  each  year  for  the 
interest  on  the  endowment.  Of  course,  that  was 


366          THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

just  as  good  to  the  school,  because  all  they  wanted  was 
the  yearly  income,  anyhow.  But  the  Trustees  were 
after  me  to  pay  over  the  full  amount,  in  order,  as  they 
said,  to  make  the  thing  sure.  And  they  kept  remind 
ing  me,  also,  that  I  had  said  I  was  going  to  swell  the 
endowment  to  half  a  million.  So,  there  on  my 
bended  knees  in  that  room,  I  made  a  covenant  with 
the  Lord.  I  would  take  him  into  partnership  with 
me  in  this  business  dicker  that  I  was  about  to  go  into; 
and,  if  he  prospered  me,  I  vowed  that  I'd  pay  over 
in  full  —  and  without  going  back  on  it  this  time  - 
all  the  gifts  I  had  thus  far  made  in  the  form  of  agree 
ments  to  pay. 

When  the  Sunday  was  over,  I  came  back  to  the 
city  with  a  glad  heart.  I  went  down  to  Wall  Street 
the  next  morning  feeling  a  young  man  once  more. 
Without  waiting  for  anything  or  anybody,  I  went 
onto  the  market  and  began  my  operations.  I  had 
learned  in  my  associations  with  Gould  and  Fisk  that 
Erie  was  the  stock  they  were  planning  to  centre  their 
Bear  operations  on.  Besides,  I  knew  of  a  large 
issue  of  Erie  stock  --  23  millions  —  which  they 
had  secretly  put  through  about  three  months  before. 
So  I  gave  orders  to  my  brokers  to  sell  that  stock 
heavily  short. 

I  didn't  find  any  difficulty  in  getting  my  offers 
taken.  In  fact,  these  offers  of  mine  were  snatched 
up  so  quick  on  the  floor  of  the  Exchange  that  if  I'd 
been  a  little  more  cautious  I  might  have  suspected 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         367 

something.  Because,  and  I  found  it  out  later,  it 
was  no  other  than  Gould  and  Fisk  themselves  who 
had  turned  tail  and  instead  of  Bears  had  suddenly 
become  Bulls.  They  had  changed  their  tactics 
without  giving  me  notice. 

Our  lock-up  of  greenbacks,  with  purpose  to  tighten 
the  money  market  and  produce  a  fall  in  securities, 
had  been  so  successful  that  great  pressure  had  been 
brought  to  bear  on  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
at  Washington  to  put  back  into  circulation  some  of 
the  currency  that  had  been  called  in  by  him  in  pre 
paration  for  our  country's  resumption  of  specie 
payments.  First  along  Secretary  McCulloch  hadn't 
listened  to  these  appeals.  He  thought  they  were 
cries  of  some  stock-market  speckilators  who  had  got 
themselves  in  a  tight  hole.  But  when  the  leading 
business  men  of  the  country  began  to  urge  it,  he 
finally  yielded  and  had  reissued  some  four  millions 
of  money.  Fisk  and  Gould,  seeing  that  the  author- 
ties  in  Washington  had  begun  to  turn  against  them 
and  were  now  siding  in  with  the  business  interests 
of  the  country,  had  taken  it  as  a  warning.  They 
suddenly  turned  from  their  Bear  campaign,  and  now 
were  Bulls. 

Unluckily,  I  didn't  know  of  this.  I  was  an  out 
sider  now.  To  speckilate  as  an  outsider,  is  like  try 
ing  to  drive  black  pigs  in  the  dark.  So  I  kept  on 
selling  Erie  short  just  when  Gould  and  Fisk  had 
turned  and  were  buying  Erie  for  a  rise.  I  learned 


368         THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

later  that  they  had  made  this  sudden  turn  in  their 
tactics  partly  in  order  to  squeeze  me.  Because  they 
had  been  all-fired  mad  when  I  deserted  them  in  the 
campaign  of  locking  up  greenbacks.  Jimmy  at 
the  time  had  called  me  "  'Fraid  Cat/'  "Danny 
Cold -Feet,"  "Turn-Tail,"  and  such-like.  But  I 
hadn't  cared.  I  was  determined  to  look  out  for 
number  one,  no  matter  what  names  he  called  me. 

The  long  and  the  short  of  it  is,  by  and  by  my  con 
tracts  to  deliver  seventy  thousand  shares  of  Erie 
matured;  and  I  wasn't  able.  Gould  and  Fisk  had 
bought  up  the  entire  floating  supply  of  Erie,  and 
now  I  couldn't  buy  it  for  love  or  money.  Erie  shot 
up  suddenly  from  35  to  47,  a  rise  of  12  per  cent, 
almost  in  an  hour. 

This  was  on  a  Saturday.  A  week  from  that  time 
a  steamer  would  be  in  from  England  bringing  a 
large  consignment  of  Erie  stock  which  English 
investors  were  shipping  over.  But  that  would  be  too 
late  —  my  contracts  would  mature  by  the  follow 
ing  Wednesday.  I  was  in  a  bad  fix.  The  other  boys 
who  had  been  caught  along  with  me  in  this  corner 
held  a  meeting.  I  was  there.  It  was  voted  to  go  to 
the  courts  and  get  an  injunction  restraining  the  cor- 
nerers  from  demanding  the  stock. 

I  was  glad  I  had  been  present  at  this  meeting.  It 
put  information  into  my  hands  which  I  might  be 
able  to  make  use  of.  So  the  next  morning,  although 
it  was  on  a  Sunday,  I  went  to  Fisk  at  his  office  in  the 


THE   BOOK   OF    DANIEL   DREW        369 

Grand  Opera  House  building.  It  was  a  beautiful 
building.  If  I'd  had  time,  most  like  I'd  have 
stopped  to  admire  all  the  costly  fixings  that  Jimmy 
had  put  into  it.  After  he'd  bought  this  Opera 
House,  he  rented  some  of  its  space  to  the  Erie  Rail 
road  for  its  offices.  He  had  his  own  office  there 
also.  Opposite  the  main  entrance  was  an  ante 
room  for  his  visitors  to  wait  in.  Behind  the  door 
opening  from  there  was  a  screen  of  red  curtain. 
There,  behind  that  screen,  Jimmy  sat  at  a  big  black 
walnut  desk.  The  doors  of  the  offices  were  of  black 
walnut,  and  over  each  was  a  silver-plate  sign  to  tell 
the  department.  Even  the  ceilings  were  painted 
with  all  kinds  of. fancy  pictures.  Fisk  had  springs 
all  round  his  desk,  for  sending  signals  to  every  part 
of  the  building.  Under  the  same  roof  he  gave  his 
French  operas;  and  he  was  manager  of  this  also. 
By  pushing  one  spring,  French  ballet  dancers  would 
be  ushered  into  his  private  office.  Another  signal 
would  bring  a  messenger  boy.  Another  would  bring 
the  heads  of  the  Erie  Railroad.  Another  would 
bring  the  managers  of  his  steamboat  lines.  He 
also  had  a  room  where  he  could  give  banquets. 
Jimmy  there  was  a  kind  of  Solomon  in  all  his  glory. 
For  under  that  roof  he  had  power  and  money,  and 
all  that  money  could  buy.  He  called  himself 
"Prince  Erie." 

But  I  wasn't  in  any  mood  to  stop  and  think  of 
those  things  then.     I  was  in  too  much  grief  of  mind. 


370          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

So  I  walked  into  his  office  and  went  straight  to  the 
gist  of  the  matter.  I  told  Fisk  I  was  in  a  fix.  Those 
deliveries  of  Erie  stock  that  I  had  contracted  to 
make  —  unluckily  I  was  unable  to  meet  them. 
I  asked  him  to  help  me  out  by  not  pressing  me  for 
the  stock  just  on  the  tick  of  the  minute,  but  to  give 
me  a  few  more  days. 

He  replied  in  what  I  thought  was  a  very  unfeeling 
manner.  He  said  that  he  wasn't  running  a  benev 
olent  institution;  this  Wall  Street  business,  as  he 
understood  it,  wasn't  a  distribution  of  Christmas 
candy  or  a  Charitable  Relief  Society.  If  I  was 
squeezed  I  must  make  the  best  of  it. 

"Look  happy,  Uncle,"  he  added;  "look  happy. 
Of  course,  we  shall  be  under  the  necessity  of  taking 
nearly  all  of  your  earthly  possessions.  But  there 
are  other  things  in  life  besides  money.  Grin  and 
bear  it.  In  fact,  I  understand  you  have  been 
*  Bearing'  it!"  And  he  roared  with  laughter  at  his 
joke.  He  leaned  his  big,  blonde  bulk  back  in  his 
chair  —  Fisk  was  by  this  time  as  fat  as  a  butcher's 
dog  —  and  seemed  to  enjoy  the  thing  immensely. 

But  I  wouldn't  give  up.  A  rich  person  is  like 
a  man  up  a  tree,  liable  to  come  down  so  much  faster 
than  he  went  up.  I  was  afraid  of  becoming  a  poor 
man  once  more.  So  now  I  pressed  my  case  home  to 
Fisk  every  way  I  knew.  I  said  that  to  let  me  off 
didn't  mean  that  he'd  have  to  let  the  rest  of  the  Bears 
off  who  were  also  caught  in  this  corner.  In  fact, 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW        371 

he  would  make  so  much  out  of  them  that  he  could 
afford  to  be  easy  on  me.  My  case,  I  tried  to  show 
him,  was  different  from  the  others.  He  and  I  had 
been  friends  together  a  long  time.  Surely  it  wouldn't 
do  to  let  any  unpleasantness  come  between  us  now. 
He  had  all  the  money  he  wanted,  anyhow;  and  it 
would  be  Christianity  in  him  to  let  me  off.  I 
reminded  him  how  the  Bible  says  that  we  ought 
to  be  tenderly  affectioned  one  to  another.  But  he 
didn't  soften. 

"Call  Gould  in,"  said  I.  "I  know  Jay  will  have 
some  heart,  even  if  you  haven't."  First  along  Jimmy 
wouldn't  do  it.  By  and  by  he  consented.  He  went 
into  another  room  while  Jay  came  in.  I  told  him 
pretty  much  the  same  thing  that  I  had  told  Jimmy. 
I  didn't  get  any  satisfaction. 

Finally  they  said  they  were  tired  of  discussing 
the  thing  at  that  time;  if  I  wanted  to,  I  could  come 
around  again  that  night  at  ten  o'clock.  So  I  left. 
I  was  there  at  ten  o'clock  that  night,  good  and 
prompt.  But  I  didn't  get  in  to  see  them  as  soon  as 
I  had  expected.  They  seemed  to  have  a  press  of 
business  on  hand.  Though  they  had  told  me  to 
come  at  ten,  it  was  eleven  o'clock  before  I  finally 
was  admitted  from  the  anteroom  into  the  office 
where  they  were.  I  started  right  in. 

"See  here,  boys,"  said  I.  "I'm  not  asking  you 
to  lose  any  money  yourselves.  All  I  want  is  for 
you  to  give  that  printing  press  another  turn.  Print 


372          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

a  few  more  convertible  bonds.  They  won't  cost 
you  any  money;  the  Erie  Railroad  can  easily  afford 
it.  You  have  the  power  to  issue  more  bonds  if  you 
want  to.  If  you  are  caught  at  it,  I  will  buy  the  bonds 
from  you  in  cash.  Or,  I'll  buy  the  bonds  of  you 
with  the  understanding  that  I  am  not  to  pay  for 
them  unless  they  catch  you  at  it." 

But  Jimmy  all  of  a  sudden  seemed  to  become 
full  of  prickles  in  his  conscience. 

"Why,  Uncle,"  he  replied,  and  he  pretended  to 
be  very  serious  and  solemn,  "as  a  high  officer  of  the 
Erie  Railroad  Corporation  I  am  sworn  to  honour, 
guard  and  defend  her  interests.  Far  be  it  from  me, 
even  at  the  sacred  call  of  friendship,  to  prove  recreant 
to  my  solemn  obligation.  They  who  pass  to  the 
harming  and  despoiling  of  the  Erie  Railroad," 
and  he  placed  his  fat  hand  over  his  heart,  "must 
pass  first  over  my  dead  body." 

Jay  grinned  while  Jimmy  was  going  through  all 
that  stuff.  But  I  didn't.  I  didn't  see  any  joke  in  it. 
I  told  them  that  I  would  pay  as  high  as  3  per  cent, 
for  the  loan  of  thirty  or  forty  thousand  shares  for 
fifteen  days.  I  said:  "You  can  call  on  me,  and  I'll 
write  my  check  for  a  plump  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  If  that  isn't  a  reasonable  profit  for  you,  what 
is  ?"  But  they  refused  to  listen. 

Then  I  changed  my  tactics.  I  said  how  I  hadn't 
come  there  merely  as  a  beggar;  that  I  had  it  in  my 
power  to  do  a  favour  to  them  as  well  as  to  ask  one. 


THE    BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         373 

"What's  that?"  they  asked. 

"Well,'7  said  I,  "I  was  at  a  meeting  of  our  Bear 
crowd  yesterday.  They  are  going  to  do  something 
which  it  would  be  mightily  to  the  interest  of  you  two 
fellows  to  know.  I'm  willing  to  turn  state's  evi 
dence,  so  to  speak,  against  them,  and  let  you  into  the 
secret,  if  you'll  agree  to  let  me  personally  out  of  the 
corner. 

They  said  they  wouldn't  agree  to  anything.  But  it 
might  soften  their  attitude  towards  me  considerable, 
they  said,  if  I  showed  that  I  remembered  old  times 
by  doing  them  the  favour,  and  tell  the  plans  of  my 
partners  in  the  Bear  party. 

I  tried  to  get  them  first  to  promise  to  let  me  off  if 
I  told  them.  They  wouldn't.  I  finally  decided  to 
tell,  and  trust  to  their  honour  as  gentlemen  to  do 
me  the  favour  in  return.  So  I  said: 

"All  right,  I'll  show  my  friendliness  of  spirit. 
I'll  let  you  in  on  the  secret.  Bright  and  early 
to-morrow  morning  those  associates  of  mine  are 
going  to  the  courts  and  get  out  an  injunction 
restraining  you  from  demanding  the  deliveries  of 
these  Erie  stocks." 

They  made  believe  to  "pooh-pooh"  the  infor 
mation;  said  it  wasn't  worth  shucks  to  them;  that 
they  didn't  care  what  injunctions  were  gotten  out; 
they  were  going  ahead  and  demand  those  deliveries, 
even  if  all  the  judges  in  creation  got  in  their  way. 

But  I  could  see,  just  the  same,  that  it  was  a  valu- 


374          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

able  piece  of  news  I  had  given  them.     "And  now/' 

said  I,  "  I  have  done  my  part.     Are  you  going  to  do 

?>  ? 
JVI+M.*  . 

"Couldn't  think  of  it,"  said  Jay.  "Drew,  we've 
got  you  just  where  we  want  you.  You'll  have  to 
pony  up." 

"Boys,"  said  I,  "don't  you  drive  me  too  far,  or 
I'll  fight  back.  I  know  a  whole  lot  about  you. 
You  know  during  the  whole  of  our  other  fights  I 
objected  to  ever  giving  my  affidavit.  But  I  swear 
I  will  do  you  all  the  harm  I  can,  if  you  don't  help 
me  in  this  time  of  my  great  need.  So  help  me 
Heaven!  if  you  don't  let  me  out  of  this  corner  I'll 
go  before  the  courts  and  make  an  affidavit  telling  all 
about  our  old  deals,  and  show  you  up." 

"It's  a  hard  winter,"  said  Fisk,  "when  one  wolf 
eats  another.  And  you  would  have  to  give  away 
on  yourself,  too.  You  were  with  us,  hand  and  glove. 
In  fact,  you  were  in  it  before  we  commenced." 

"It  don't  make  any  difference,"  said  I.  "I'm 
willing  to  make  a  clean  breast  of  the  whole  thing. 
I  will  hew  to  the  line,  let  the  chips  fall  where  they 
will.  For  I  am  desperate.  If  you  put  that  Erie 
stock  up,  I  am  a  ruined  man." 

"Dan  Drew,"  said  Jimmy,  "you  are  the  last  man 
in  the  world  to  whine  over  any  position  in  which  you 
may  find  yourself  in  Erie." 

I  didn't  answer  back.  I  didn't  see  any  use  of 
dragging  out  the  talk.  It  was  already  one  o'clock. 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW        375 

In  fact,  they  themselves  were  plainly  showing  me 
that  they  wanted  the  interview  brought  to  an  end. 
I  rose  to  my  feet.  I  took  my  hat.  I  said  just  this: 
"Gentlemen,  I  will  bid  you  good  night." 

Jay  grinned   so   wide   it  was   almost   a   laugh  - 
about  as  near  a  laugh,  I  guess,  as  that  graveyard 
face  of  his  could  get.     As  to  Jimmy,  he  bust  out  in 
a  roar.     I  didn't  take  any  notice.     I  left  them  and 
passed  out. 

It's  a  sorry  colt  that  will  kick  its  own  dam.  I 
felt  all  the  more  sore  at  the  unfeeling  way  in  which 
Gould  and  Fisk  were  treating  me  in  this  matter, 
because  I  had  been  their  foster  parent,  so  to  speak. 
When  they  came  into  Wall  Street  as  yearlings,  I 
had  taken  them  up  —  had  showed  them  how  to  make 
money.  And  now,  for  them  to  turn  on  me  in  my 
old  age  and  strip  me  in  this  way,  was  an  unthankful 
thing  to  do.  It  was  like  a  mare  of  mine  once,  that 
got  a  stone  in  her  foot.  It  was  hurting  her,  and  was 
like  to  lame  her  for  life.  So  I  got  off,  and  started 
to  help  her.  As  I  was  bending  over  the  hoof  and 
trying  to  dig  the  stone  out,  she  reached  down  and  bit 
me  in  the  seat.  I  remember  it  made  me  very  sore 
towards  her  —  this  ungrateful  act  of  hers.  So  in  the 
present  case.  I  felt  I  had  never  seen  a  more  ungrate 
ful  pair  of  men  than  Jim  Fisk  and  Jay  Gould. 

But  it  was  no  time  to  nurse  feelings.  Things  had 
to  be  done,  and  very  quick,  too.  The  Sabbath  Day 
v/as  already  at  an  end.  (I  was  very  sorry  that  I  had 


376          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

been  forced  to  desecrate  the  day.  As  I  was  going 
home  that  night  from  Fisk's  office,  I  felt  myself  a 
guilty  and  hell-deserving  sinner,  and  have  asked 
since  to  be  forgiven  for  breaking  that  Lord's 
day.) 

After  a  short  sleep,  I  got  up  the  next  morning  and 
set  to  work.  I  was  in  really  a  tighter  fix  than  I  had 
been  the  day  before.  Because,  since  I  had  given 
away  on  my  partners  in  the  Bear  crowd,  they  were 
down  on  me.  And  it  hadn't  helped  me  any  with 
Fisk  and  Gould,  either.  I  was  now  between  two 
fires,  so  to  speak.  I  was  sorry  I  had  told  those  two 
men  anything  at  all  of  our  plans.  They  had  pre 
tended  that  they  didn't  care  beans  for  the  informa 
tion.  Just  the  same  they  used  it.  Before  we  could 
get  out  our  injunction,  they  up  and  went  to  Judge 
Barnard  before  he  was  out  of  bed  and  got  an  injunc 
tion  against  us.  In  war  it's  always  an  advantage 
to  attack  first.  In  the  case  of  lawsuits,  to  get  out 
an  injunction  first  is  particularly  helpful;  it  puts 
the  party  that  comes  out  next  with  an  injunction,  in 
the  light  of  mere  quibblers  and  obstructionists; 
and  they  don't  have  a  standing  with  either  court  or 
jury. 

Now  it  was  a  case  of  fight  it  out  to  a  finish.  We 
tried  to  get  Fisk  and  Gould  ousted  from  their  office, 
and  the  Erie  Railroad  placed  into  the  hands  of  a 
receiver.  I  went  before  the  court,  as  I  had  told 
them  I  would,  and  tried  to  hurt  them  by  making 


THE  BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         377 

a   clean   breast  of  some  of  our  doings.     This  was 
my  affidavit: 

"Gould  and  Fisk  have  recently  been  engaged  in 
locking  up  money;  they  told  me  so;  they  wanted  me 
to  join  them  in  locking  up  money,  and  I  did  to 
the  extent  of  $1,000,000,  and  refused  to  lock  up 
any  more;  I  had  originally  agreed  to  lock  up 
$4,000,00,  but  when  money  became  very  tight,  I 
deemed  it  prudent  to  decline  to  go  any  further,  and 
unlocked  my  million;  the  object  of  locking  up  is  to 
make  money  scarce  —  to  make  stocks  fall,  because 
people  couldn't  get  the  money  to  carry  them. 

DANIEL  DREW." 

The  next  few  days  were  about  as  hard  as  I  ever 
went  through.  I  was  like  a  snake  under  a  harrow  - 
couldn't  wriggle  out,  no  matter  which  way  I  turned. 
When  my  fellow  Bears  learned  that  I  had  employed 
Sunday  to  go  to  the  Erie  crowd,  they  thought  of 
me  as  a  Jack-on-both-sides.  They  called  me  an 
informer.  They  soured  on  me.  Then,  when  the 
Street  saw  my  affidavit,  they  turned  against  me  also. 
Because  it  was  the  first  news  they'd  had  that  I  had 
broken  with  my  old  Erie  partners.  Fisk  and  Gould 
were  powerful  on  the  market  at  this  time.  It  was 
seen  that  I  was  no  longer  in  with  the  ruling  clique 
as  I  once  was;  so  a  good  many  of  the  operators  were 
not  willing  to  follow  me  any  longer.  I  was  mortal 
lonesome. 

As  the  time  to  make  my  deliveries  drew  nigh,  I  had 


378          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

to  do  something.  I  went  onto  the  market  and  tried 
to  buy  Erie.  I  offered  any  price.  It  was  an  awful 
fix.  All  the  other  Bears  were  likewise  trying  to 
buy.  The  price  went  up  like  sixty.  Between 
Monday  and  Wednesday  the  price  jumped  from  47 
to  57.  And  I  couldn't  get  it  even  at  that  figure. 
If  that  steamer  from  England  would  only  come! 
But  she  couldn't  possibly  arrive  until  the  thing  would 
be  over.  By  Thursday  afternoon  our  buying  had 
forced  the  stock  up  to  62.  This  was  at  two  o'clock. 
At  a  quarter  to  three  the  stock  would  have  to  be 
delivered.  I  thought  I  was  a  goner. 

Just  then  a  strange  thing  happened.  Queer 
figures  were  seen  coming  into  Broad  Street  - 
tailors  from  uptown,  boot-makers,  small  cigar 
dealers,  and  the  like.  Each  of  them  had  one  or  more 
ten-share  certificates  of  Erie  in  his  inside  pocket, 
which  he  now  offered  for  sale.  The  thing  was  soon 
explained.  Some  time  before,  an  issue  of  Erie 
stock  had  been  put  out  in  ten-share  certificates. 
Nothing  but  stock  printed  in  ten-share  certificates 
is  sent  across  the  ocean  to  London.  It  had  been 
calculated  by  Fisk  and  Gould,  therefore,  that  this 
particular  issue  had  been  bought  by  English  inves 
tors,  and  was  safe  across  the  water.  They  had  taken 
account  of  all  the  rest  of  the  supply  on  the  market, 
except  this  ten-share  issue.  Now  we  learned,  and 
it  was  a  joyful  surprise,  that  a  good  number  of  these 
ten-share  certificates  had  been  quietly  bought  up  at 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW        379 

the  time  by  small  buyers  on  this  side  —  clerks, 
barbers,  shoe  dealers,  and  so  forth;  and  now  were 
being  dragged  out  of  their  hoarding  places  by  the 
high  prices  we  were  offering. 

This  help  appeared  none  too  soon.  I  grabbed  at 
every  ten-share  certificate  that  was  offered.  Jimmy 
and  his  black-faced  partner  saw  my  move.  They 
tried  to  head  me  off  by  themselves  snatching  up 
these  new  offers  so  I  couldn't  get  them.  It  was  an 
exciting  time  on  the  floor  of  the  Exchange.  They 
did  succeed  in  absorbing  much  of  what  was  offered. 
I  worked  like  a  house  afire.  Five  minutes  before 
closing  time  I  got  my  shorts  covered.  But  it  had 
been  at  an  awful  cost.  This  squeeze  in  Erie  cost  me 
well-nigh  a  million  dollars  in  good,  hard  money. 

But  the  loss  did  me  some  good.  It  taught  me 
once  for  all  not  to  take  up  with  new  and  strange 
doctrines.  Some  time  later  I  met  the  man  who 
had  been  with  me  in  that  church  service  up  in  the 
country.  I  said  to  him: 

"Do  you  remember  that  new-fangled  notion  that 
was  brought  out  in  the  sermon  we  heard  some  weeks 
ago,  about  taking  God  into  partnership  with  you  in 
your  business  ?" 

He  said,  yes,  he  remembered  it  very  clear. 

"Well,"  said  I,  "there's  nothing  to  it." 


XXXVII 

I  WAS  sorry    at    the    time    it    happened  that  I 
had   broken    with    Fisk    and   Gould.     When 
you  are  in  with  an  inside  clique  of  operators, 
you  have  the  pick  of  the  basket,  so  to  speak.     Those 
on  the  outside  take  what's  left.       But  I  now  see  that 
even  to  have  stayed  in  with  my  old  crowd  wouldn't 
have  helped  for  very  long.     Because  something  was 
soon  to  happen  which  would  have  smashed  up  our 
ring,  anyhow. 

It  came  on  a  Saturday  in  January.  I  remem 
ber  it,  because  the  next  day  was  Sunday.  And  I 
thought  how  awful  it  must  be  for  Jimmy  to  be 
hurled  into  Eternity  on  that  day,  with  no  time  to 
say  his  prayers  and  mind  his  soul.  We  had  finished 
breakfast  that  morning  in  my  house  in  Union  Square; 
I  was  just  about  getting  through  with  morning 
devotions.  A  coach  drove  up  to  the  door  with  great 
style.  There  was  a  darkey  coachman,  togged  out 
like  a  militiaman  at  General  Training;  the  horses 
were  all  shiny  with  harness  of  brass  and  steel.  You'd 
have  thought  it  was  some  king  paying  a  royal  visit. 
In  fact,  it  was  "Prince  Erie."  Jimmy  now  came 
up  the  steps  lively  as  a  cricket,  and  into  the  house. 

380 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW        381 

"Hello,  Colonel,"  I  said.  He  liked  to  be  called 
colonel.  By  his  offering  jobs  in  the  Erie  Railroad 
to  the  officers  of  a  militia  regiment,  he  had  got  himself 
elected  their  colonel. 

He  said:  "Good  morning,  Uncle/'  and  I  took  him 
into  the  front  room,  where  we  could  be  alone.  We 
didn't  refer  to  the  late  unpleasantness  that  had  come 
between  us  in  the  matter  of  the  Erie  corner.  Busi 
ness  men  don't  carry  grudges.  Every  day  is  a  new 
beginning.  If  you  can  use  a  man  to-day,  it  never 
pays  to  remember  what  he  may  have  done  to  you, 
or  you  to  him,  yesterday. 

He  sat  down  in  the  plush  chair  in  front  of  the  fire 
place.  I  burned  cannel  coal  in  that  fireplace.  How 
well  I  remember  th6se  little  details  now !  At  the  time, 
I  hadn't  any  idea  it  would  be  the  last  I  should  ever 
see  Jimmy  alive  —  in  fact,  that  it  was  to  be  his 
last  day  upon  earth. 

"I  came,"  said  he,  as  soon  as  he  got  seated,  "to 
talk  with  you  about  those  shares  of  yours  in  the 
Bristol  Line  of  steamboats.  How  would  you  like 
to  get  them  off  your  hands  and  have  the  money  ? 
Ready  cash,  you  know,  is  a  handy  article,  and  often 
better  than  capital  tied  up,  particularly  in  boats." 

I  told  him  I  was  always  open  to  an  offer.  I  said 
that  just  now  in  particular  I  was  in  a  position  where 
ready  cash  would  come  in  almighty  good.  He  made 
me  an  offer  for  the  stock.  We  dickered  for  a  spell. 
Finally  I  told  him  I  couldn't  give  any  answer  then. 


382          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

I'd  turn  the  thing  over  in  my  mind,  and  would  let 
him  know  later. 

"So  long,"  said  he.  "Think  it  over  quick/' 
And  he  started  to  leave. 

"  Going  so  soon  ? "  said  I.     "  Stay  and  visit  a  spell." 

"No,"  said  he;  "I've  got  a  busy  day  ahead  of  me. 
That  Ned  Stokes  is  putting  me  to  an  everlasting  lot 
of  trouble.  But  I'll  trounce  him,  yet,  you  see  if  I 
don't." 

I  tried  to  shame  him  out  of  making  such  a  big 
fuss  over  so  little  a  thing  as  a  love  scrap. 

"But,  Uncle,"  said  he,  "it  isn't  a  little  thing. 
That  rat  has  come  between  me  and  my  Josie. 
Before  he  came  along  I  had  things  my  own  way  over 
at  her  house.  I  was  the  one  who  set  her  up  in  that 
house.  Before  she  knew  me  she  didn't  have  a  decent 
gown  to  her  back  — yes,  owed  money  for  her  rent! 
There's  no  end  to  the  cash  I've  spent  on  that  woman. 
And  for  her  to  turn  me  down  for  that  young  popin 
jay  is  more  than  I  can  stand.  If  he  was  even  of  some 
account  on  the  Street,  I  wouldn't  blame  her  so  much. 
But  for  her  to  take  up  with  a  little  two-by-four  like 
him  —  put  me  out  of  her  house  to  give  him  room  - 
no  self-respecting  man  could  put  up  with  it.  And 
I'll  smash  him  for  it  if  I  have  to  keep  at  it  from  now 
till  the  cows  come  home.  If  Tweed  was  only  back 
in  popular  favour  as  he  was  a  little  while  ago,  I  could 
get  a  couple  of  men  from  his  gang  of '  Dead  Rabbits' 
to  help  me  with  the  job."  He  went  on  to  say  how  he 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW        383 

had  been  getting  even  with  his  Josephine  by  buying 
her  servants  out  of  her  employ  as  fast  as  she  could 
hire  them;  and  he  said  he  had  other  aces  up  his 
sleeve  which  he  hadn't  played  yet.  "I'll  show  them 
a  thing  or  two,  before  I  get  through  with  this  thing." 

"Have  a  care,  Jimmy/'  said  I;  "those  light-heeled 
women  are  bad  people  to  deal  with.  They're  devil's 
daughters,  every  last  one  of  them." 

"I  guess  I'm  finding  it  out,"  he  replied.  " There 
isn't  any  faithfulness  in  a  car-load  of  them.  What 
do  you  think  ?  She's  suing  me  now  for  libel. 
Just  at  this  minute  I've  got  to  get  over  to  the  York- 
ville  Court  and  fight  it  out.  But,  Uncle,  there's 
as  good  fish  in  the  sea  as  ever  was  caught.  Your 
Jim  Jubilee,  Jr.,  isn't  down  and  out  just  yet.  I'm 
as  bucksorne  as  ever.  Why,  as  soon  as  I  get  rid  of 
that  pair  of  rascals  at  the  Yorkville  Court  to-day, 
I've  got  an  appointment  with  a  woman  and  her 
daughter  down  at  a  hotel  on  Broadway.  Mothers 
do  well  not  to  hang  onto  their  daughters  too  long. 
Dead  fish  and  daughters  are  bad  things  to  keep. 
Glasses  and  lasses  are  brittle  wear,  Uncle,"  he 
called  out,  as  he  was  going  through  the  door;  "and 
the  finer  they  are,  the  more  brittle.  By-by."  That 
was  the  last  time  I  ever  saw  Jimmy  alive.  Who'd 
have  thought  that  a  man  as  gay  as  that  was  going 
to  his  death  ?  After  he'd  got  through  with  the  ses 
sion  of  the  Yorkville  Police  Court,  Jimmy  went  down 
to  the  Grand  Central  Hotel  on  Broadway.  He 


384  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL  DREW 

was  going  in  at  the  north  entrance  to  meet  the  woman 
and  her  daughter  that  he  had  spoken  about.  Just 
as  he  got  inside  the  door  and  was  going  up  the  short 
stairs  to  the  parlour  floor,  Stokes  at  the  top  met  him 
and  shot  him  with  a  revolver.  It  hit  him  in  the 
belly.  Stokes  threw  the  revolver  under  a  lounge 
in  one  of  the  parlours  leading  off  from  the  hall, 
and  tried  to  get  away.  But  he  was  caught,  and  taken 
to  jail.  Fisk  sank  where  he  stood,  and  hardly  spoke 
after  that.  He  was  taken  into  one  of  the  parlours 
of  the  hotel.  He  died  the  next  morning  about  ten 
o'clock. 

It  was  a  sad  Sunday  for  all  of  us.  The  thing  had 
come  so  sudden.  Jimmy  was  the  livest  one  in  all 
our  crowd.  Although  I'd  had  some  differences  with 
him  a  little  while  before,  still  I  hadn't  allowed  that 
to  sour  me  against  him.  He  was  one  that  you 
couldn't  stay  mad  at  for  any  length  of  time.  He  had 
a  way  of  making  up  with  you,  that  you  just  couldn't 
resist.  And  now  that  he  was  gone,  it  seemed  as 
though  the  king  pin  had  been  knocked  out  of  our 
Wall  Street  clique.  In  fact,  Jimmy  himself  had 
seemed  to  know  how  important  he  was.  He  used 
to  slap  me  on  the  back  hard  enough  to  make  my 
teeth  rattle,  and  say:  "Uncle,  you  and  Jay  couldn't 
get  along  without  Jim  Fisk,  and  you  know  it!" 

I  guess  the  others  in  our  old  crowd  seemed  to  feel 
the  loss  just  the  way  I  did.  After  Jimmy  was  dead 
Jay  went  down  to  the  room  in  the  hotel  where  he  lay, 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL  DREW          385 

and  sat  near  to  the  body  while  it  was  lying  in  state. 
Bill  Tweed  also  came  in  and  stood  a  while  in  the 
little  party  at  the  head  of  the  coffin.  But  the  people, 
as  they  filed  through  to  see  Jimmy  in  his  coffin, 
looked  at  Tweed;  and  soon  he  got  up  and  went  away. 
I  can't  tell  how  lonesome  it  was  to  all  of  us  when  the 
body  was  finally  taken  —  on  a  special  train  —  up 
to  his  old  home,  Brattleboro,  Vt.,  and  there  put 
away  in  the  ground.  They  placed  a  big  monu 
ment  over  his  grave.  It  had  figures  representing 
"Commerce,"  "Navigation,"  "Drama,"  and  "Rail 
roads,"  on  the  four  corners;  they  tried  their  best  to 
brighten  up  the  gloom.  But  it  didn't  work.  Some 
how,  we  felt  that  it  wasn't  going  to  be  so  well  with 
any  of  us  after  that.  And  it  wasn't  very  long  before 
our  fears  came  true.  That  same  year  Tweed  was 
hounded  by  the  papers  until  the  Sheriff  got  him  and 
locked  him  up  in  the  County  Prison  on  Blackwell's 
Island,  and  he  never  got  out  alive  again  —  that  is,  to 
go  free.  With  Tweed  gone,  the  other  prop  that  had 
helped  us  so  much  in  our  Wall  Street  speckilations 
was  taken  away.  Jay  felt  this  as  much  as  I.  He  has 
gone  on  making  lots  of  money.  But  since  Tweed  was 
locked  up  and  Fisk  shot,  Gould  has  become  lonely 
and  troubled.  He  says  he  is  going  to  give  some  of  his 
Erie  Railroad  money  to  the  New  York  Presbytery,  to 
be  used  for  Home  and  Foreign  Missions.  Even  Ned 
Stokes,  who  did  the  shooting,  doesn't  enjoy  life,  though 
he  is  out  of  jail  at  last.  He  sees  spooks  in  the  night. 


386          THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

The  papers,  of  course,  had  a  whole  lot  to  say  when 
Fisk  was  killed  and  our  crowd  thus  broken  up. 
The  New  York  Times,  the  morning  after  his  death, 
came  out  in  an  editorial  like  this: 

We  shall  probably  be  thought  very  eccentric 
if  we  suggest  a  reflection  which  must  have  occurred 
to  many  minds  yesterday  —  namely,  that  the  old- 
fashioned  theory  (as  some  people  call  it)  about  guilt 
bringing  with  it  its  own  punishment,  receives  a  start 
ling  illustration  in  the  events  of  the  past  year.  There 
are  not  a  few  persons  in  the  world  who  think  that 
we  are  too  much  advanced  in  knowledge  to  believe 
that  there  is  any  person  in  the  universe  greater  than 
that  which  we  create  ourselves,  or  which  is  tangible 
enough  to  be  touched;  and  that  all  human  circum 
stances  are  the  result  of  accident  or  chance.  Yet 
the  events  of  the  past  year  might  well  disturb  the 
conclusions  of  these  philosophers.  The  men  of 
whom  Fisk  was  one  seemed  to  be  so  strong  that 
nothing  could  shake  them.  They  had  wealth  and 
power  unlimited;  they  altered  laws  to  suit  them 
selves;  leaders  of  society  bowed  down  before  them. 
The  world  had  nothing  more  to  offer  them.  But  to 
the  astonishment  of  all  men,  and  as  it  were  in  a 
moment,  the  whirlwind  descends  upon  them,  and 
they  are  swept  away.  Their  wealth  is  gone;  their 
names  are  become  a  by-word;  some  of  them  are  vaga 
bonds  on  the  face  of  the  earth;  others  perish,  in  the 
bitter  language  of  Swift,  like  poisoned  rats  in  a  hole. 
We  say  again  that  it  is  an  amazing  spectacle,  and 
though  some  may  continue  to  assert, "  It  is  all  chance," 
and  to  cry  out,  "There  is  no  God,"  there  are  others 


THE   BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW        387 

who  will  be  inclined  to  take  a  different  view  of  it, 
and  to  go  back  to  the  simpler  faith  of  earlier  years  - 
that  somehow  or  other,  explain  it  how  we  will,  the 
sin  of  every  man  finds  him  out,  and  the  divine  laws 
are  just  in  execution,  whether  we  choose  to  acknowl 
edge  their  existence  or  not. 

That  editor  bothered  his  head  more  than  there 
was  any  use  of,  to  prove  that  there's  a  God.  I 
could  have  told  him,  without  his  trying  to  find  it  out 
in  such  roundabout  fashion.  In  my  own  life,  I've 
experienced  the  guidings  of  Providence  in  a  way 
too  clear  to  be  mistaken  —  that  is,  up  to  the  time 
when  bad  luck  set  in  for  me.  And  even  now,  when 
it  isn't  so  well  with  me  as  it  used  to  be,  I  try  to  trust 
even  where  I  can't  see: 

"From  every  stormy  wind  that  blows, 
From  every  swelling  tide  of  woes, 
There  is  a  calm,  a  sure  retreat, 
'Tis  found  beneath  the  mercy  seat." 

Even  in  these  later  days  of  my  life,  I  have  been 
snatched  out  of  ruin  sometimes  by  such  close  shaves 
that  I  have  had  to  fall  down  onto  my  marrow-bones 
in  thankfulness.  Why,  I  have  come  home  at  night 
sometimes  so  tuckered  and  down  in  the  mouth,  I've 
said,  the  first  thing  on  getting  into  the  house:  "We're 
ruined,  Danck,  we're  ruined !  It's  sure  pop  this 
time!"  and  I  have  gone  to  bed  with  my  boots  on 
and  without  stopping  to  undress,  I  have  been  that 


388          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

down-hearted.  But  in  the  morning,  on  getting  up, 
I'd  say: 

"Go  out,  Danck,  and  get  the  paper.  We'll  look 
our  fate  in  the  face." 

And  when  he  had  brought  it  in,  and  I  had  looked 
over  the  stock  quotations,  I'd  have  to  exclaim : 

"We're  saved,  Danck,  we're  saved  after  all!  That 
fall  of  two  points  does  it!" 

The  way  to  keep  your  religion  is  not  to  be  all  the 
time  arguing  about  God,  but  just  believe  him.  I 
don't  see  why,  just  because  Ned  Stokes  put  that 
bullet  into  Fisk's  belly,  that  it  proves  anything  one 
way  or  the  other  about  religion.  And  yet,  the 
papers  made  it  a  big  card  against  us.  They  came 
out  like  this: 

In  every  bad  man's  life  there  comes  a  moment 
when  the  machinery  of  wrong  he  has  so  laboriously 
contrived  seems  to  be  going  wrong;  when  one  after 
another  of  his  elaborate  combinations  fails;  when  the 
building  of  dishonesty  or  cunning,  with  all  its 
apparent  completeness  and  splendour,  seems  break 
ing  to  pieces  over  his  head.  He  sees  that  it  is  not 
man  that  is  defeating  him.  It  is  some  mysterious 
and  higher  Power. 

These  conspirators  are  now  rounded  up.  The 
vast  wealth  they  had  accumulated  melted  away  like 
the  snow  of  spring.  Even  their  very  names  became 
a  proverb  for  rascality.  Surely  the  young  men 
who  have  been  dazzled  and  debauched  by  careers 
of  flaunting  vice  and  open  and  gigantic  fraud,  will 


THE   BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW        389 

gather  some  serious  impressions  from  their  tragic 
histories.  They  must  see  that  there  is  a  mysterious 
and  gigantic  Power  ruling  the  issues  of  human  life, 
and  inexorably  punishing  the  infractions  of  his  laws, 
and  not  for  a  moment  forgetting  the  smallest  wrong: 
that  Power  we  call  God. 

Which  shows  that  the  more  educated  you  are,  the 
harder  it  sometimes  is  to  have  religious  faith. 

The  London  Times  was  also  in  high  spirits  when 
our  Erie  crowd  was  broken  up  by  Jimmy's  death 
and  by  Bill  Tweed's  imprisonment.  It  was  so 
bitter  in  its  hatred  of  me  and  my  whole  clique  that  it 
said  our  bust-up  now  was  a  cause  for  rejoicing  on 
both  sides  the  water,  and  that  we  had  been  a  bad 
thing  for  the  country: 

For  a  long  time  the  British  shareholders  of  the 
Erie  Railroad  have  been  making  efforts  to  obtain  that 
justice  which  we  are  accustomed  to  think  would 
not  be  refused  by  the  most  turbulent  Spanish  Repub 
lic  or  the  most  effete  Oriental  despotism.  In  the 
Empire  State  and  its  splendid  capital  they  laboured 
in  vain.  They  were  told  by  friendly  advisers  that 
their  agents  might  as  well  go  home  again. 

The  revolution  has  come,  and  the  Erie  ring  has 
been  broken  up.  This  incident  has  almost  a  national 
importance,  for  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  auda 
cious  practices  of  the  Erie  Directors  injured  the 
credit  of  all  American  securities.  It  is  difficult  for 
foreigners  clearly  to  distinguish  between  what  is 
sound  and  unsound  in  a  country  so  new  and  chang- 


3QO          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

ing  as  the  United  States,  and  cautious  people  might 
well  argue  that  if  other  companies  were  not  so  profli 
gate  as  the  Erie  Company,  there  was  nothing  in 
the  nature  of  American  institutions  to  prevent  them 
from  becoming  so.  Indeed,  the  pictures  drawn  by 
New  Yorkers  of  their  Legislature,  their  Judiciary, 
and  the  mercantile  doctrines  and  practices  of  their 
citizens,  were  enough  to  sober  the  most  sanguine 
speculator.  Whatever  the  truth  of  these  assertions, 
they  could  hardly  be  contradicted  so  long  as  one  of 
the  chief  enterprises  of  the  country,  involving  mil 
lions  of  money,  was  notoriously  under  the  manage 
ment  of  a  set  of  swindlers,  befriended  by  a  suspected 
legislature  and  a  more  than  suspected  judiciary. 

That  British  sheet  seemed  to  have  the  idea  that  I 
and  my  crowd  should  have  served  in  Wall  Street  for 
the  good  of  the  country!  That  would  be  a  pretty 
way  to  get  along  in  a  stock-market  deal!  If  a  fellow 
in  a  stock-market  dicker  stopped  to  think  first  how 
it  was  going  to  affect  the  country  at  large,  he  would 
have  his  hands  so  tied  he  wouldn't  be  able  to  move. 
The  trouble  with  editors  is,  they  see  only  the  down 
town  side  of  a  man's  life.  They  don't  see  the  home 
and  religious  side  of  him.  It  would  be  a  great  deal 
better  if  newspapers  would  pay  attention  to  that 
part  of  a  man's  life  that  is  open  and  above  the  sur 
face.  Straight  trees  can  have  crooked  roots. 


XXXVIII 

THOUGH  far    beyond    the    Scripture    limits 
by   this    time,   and    lonesome    because   of 
Jimmy's    death,  I    was    still    able  to  find 
my  way  around  in  Wall  Street  smart  and  handy— 
as  Jay  Gould  himself  had  to  allow.     For  it  was  about 
this  time  that  I  gave  him  and  Hen  Smith  that  squeeze 
in  Erie  which  they  won't  forget  for  some  time. 

I  saw,  by  my  reading  of  the  tape  and  from  the 
reports  that  came  to  me  around  the  Street,  that  Jay 
and  Henry  were  selling  Erie  for  future  delivery. 
I  calculated  that  they  were  overdoing  the  thing. 
Because  at  this  time,  out  of  the  seven  hundred  and 
eighty  thousand  shares  of  the  capital  stock  of  the 
road,  fully  seven  hundred  thousand  shares  were 
held  abroad.  So,  with  the  help  of  a  German  banker, 
I  got  control  of  the  floating  supply  of  the  stock  here 
in  the  New  York  market.  Then  I  waited. 

Soon  the  time  to  make  their  deliveries  came  around. 
The  short  operators,  Smith  and  Gould  among  the  rest, 
were  unable  to  get  the  stock.  Then  I  set  about. 
I  had  a  good  holt  on  them.  I  loaned  them  the 
stock.  But  it  was  at  a  rate  which  milked  them  fine 
as  anything. 

391 


392          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

"I've  known  those  two  boys/'  said  I  to  my  broker, 
"a  good  long  time.  I  guess  we  won't  charge  them 
3  per  cent,  a  day.  We  will  just  make  it  one  and  a  half. 
They  will  give  down  freer  then,  and,  more  than  that, 
they  will  feel  better." 

It  wasn't  pity  in  me  so  much  as  good  business 
policy,  to  set  the  rate  at  one  and  a  half  instead  of 
three.  Because  those  two  men,  Jay  and  Hen,  were 
so  powerful,  that  if  I'd  squeezed  them  too  tight, 
they  might  have  gone  into  litigation  and  made  it 
hard  for  me  to  collect  anything.  Even  as  it  was, 
a  cent  and  a  half  a  day  means  a  rate  of  600  per  cent, 
a  year;  and  that's  a  decent  enough  profit  for  any 
body.  And  they  had  to  pay  it.  I  had  those  fellows 
by  the  scrooch  of  the  neck.  The  way  they  squiggled 
to  get  loose  made  me  chuckle  all  over.  (I  always 
did  have  a  knack,  anyhow,  of  seeing  the  fun  of  the 
thing.)  And  just  now  they  were  squirmy  enough. 
But  I  held  on  tight.  In  fact,  I  made  them  squiggle 
still  more;  for  I  wasn't  through  with  this  deal  yet. 
After  I'd  got  the  stock  all  loaned  out,  I  waited  until 
the  moment  was  ripe.  Then,  going  down  to  the 
Street  one  morning,  I  issued  orders  to  my  brokers: 
"Call  in  now  all  of  that  stock  that  has  been  loaned 


out." 


I  knew  that  so  unlooked-for  a  move  would  make 
a  big  howl  in  the  Street.  And,  in  order  not  to  be 
pestered  by  the  yells  and  cries  of  the  operators 
when  they  suddenly  found  themselves  caught,  I 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         393 

drove  away  up  town,  and  stayed  there  all  day.  So, 
when  the  traders  on  the  Exchange  came  to  my  office 
that  day  to  beg  for  an  extension  of  their  loans,  I 
wasn't  there.  "  Mr.  Drew's  gone  away  for  the  day," 
was  the  only  thing  the  clerks  could  say. 

A  hungry  horse  makes  a  clean  manger.  I  finished 
this  deal  up  good  and  thorough.  Some  of  the 
traders  were  sold  out  by  order  of  the  Stock  Exchange 
Board.  Prices  caught  as  pretty  a  tumble  as  any 
one  could  ask  for.  And  I  took  a  slice  out  of  the  boys 
that  day  which  I  guess  they  remember  yet. 

This  was  'long  about  the  end  of  September,  soon 
after  I  had  come  back  from  my  summer's  rest  in  the 
country.  About  a  month  after,  Gould  came  around 
to  my  office  one  day.  He  chatted  for  a  while,  and 
then  said  he'd  stump  me  to  go  in  with  him  and  singe 
the  Street  by  a  Bulling  movement  in  Erie.  I  ought 
to  have  been  on  my  guard;  because  it  was  so  soon 
after  I  had  caught  Gould  in  the  corner  I  have  just 
wrote  about.  And  to  hold  that  fellow  for  any  length 
of  time,  was  like  trying  to  ride  a  cat  in  a  wheel 
barrow,  he  was  that  squiggly.  But  Jay  had  a  per 
suasive  way  with  him.  You  never  could  tell  from 
his  face  what  he  was  thinking  about  inside.  And 
now  he  put  on  such  a  friendly  tone  of  voice  that  it 
made  me  think  he  was  kindly  afFectioned  towards  me. 

"We'll  rocket  that  Erie  stock,"  said  he,  "higher 
than  Gilderoy's  kite.  Anyway,  Dan,  you  and  I 
ought  to  be  together  in  our  Wall  Street  doings. 


394          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

Let's  forget  some  of  the  late  unpleasantnesses  —  we're 
about  even,  now,  I  reckon  —  and  start  over  again." 

I  was  sort  of  tickled  at  the  idea  of  getting  back  into 
partnership  with  him.  Gould  had  a  way  of  making 
a  success  of  the  things  he  went  into.  I  knew  him  for 
a  good  mouser,  one  that  never  misses.  So  I  said 
I'd  go  in  with  him.  We  agreed  to  buy  Erie  stock 
and  hold  it  for  a  rise. 

The  thing  went  along  for  a  while,  smooth  as  a  pan 
of  milk.  The  price  of  the  stock  got  up  to  56.  That 
was  high-water  mark  compared  with  what  Erie 
had  been  selling  for  a  little  while  before.  With 
that  level  reached,  a  lot  of  shares  came  dumping 
onto  the  market.  In  order  to  keep  the  price  up,  I 
had  to  take  them.  I  didn't  know  at  the  time  that  it 
was  Gould  who  was  unloading  on  me.  I  trusted 
the  man.  I  took  all  the  shares  that  were  offered, 
and  locked  them  up  in  my  safe. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Gould  came  over 
to  my  office  and  paid  me  another  visit.  He  said 
that  the  market  in  Erie,  from  what  he  had  noticed 
in  reading  the  tape,  seemed  to  be  softening  most 
unexpectedly.  (Jay  had  so  innocent  a  way  of  say 
ing  it,  that  I  now  believed  he  was  as  much  worried 
as  I  over  the  sag  in  Erie.) 

"Tell  you,  Dan,  what  I  suspect,"  said  he.  "Most 
like  as  not  the  Street  has  got  onto  our  Erie  move  and 
has  begun  to  fight  us.  We  must  throw  them  off 
the  scent.  What  do  you  say  to  going  in, on  a  side 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW        395 

play  in  'Northwestern'  for  a  while,  as    a    kind  of 
blind  for  our  Erie  movements  ?" 

The  idea  sort  of  took  hold  of  me.  I  knew  that 
Jay  was  getting  rich  hand  over  fist,  and  so  felt  I 
could  trust  his  judgment.  Besides,  he  put  up  some 
good  arguments.  He  showed  how  the  price  of  North 
western  stock  was  'way  above  what  it  ought  to  be. 

"You  remember,  Dan,"  said  he,  "how  not  very 
long  ago  that  farmer  out  in  Wisconsin  gave  a  thou 
sand  shares  of 'Northwestern'  stock  for  a  shanghai 
rooster;  and  now  it's  selling  clean  up  at  75.  It's 
a  ridiculous  price.  We  can  go  in,  sell  the  market 
short  at  that  figure,  and  play  for  at  least  a  ten-point 
drop  in  the  next  three  weeks." 

I  said  I  guessed  it  was  safe  to  go  short  of  "North 
western";  and  that  it  might  tickle  the  boys  to  speck- 
ilate  for  a  spell  in  something  new.  So  I  sent  word 
to  my  brokers  and  they  put  out  a  line  of  shorts  in 
"Nor'west"  to  the  extent  of  twenty  thousand  shares. 

I  ought  then  to  have  watched  that  "Nor' west" 
deal  more  closely  than  I  did.  Because,  as  I  found 
out  afterwards,  at  the  very  time  that  Gould  was 
getting  me  to  go  short  of  it,  he  was  engineering  a 
pool  to  Bull  that  same  identical  stock.  For  a  report 
was  around  that  Vanderbilt  was  after  the  road  in 
order  to  get  a  western  connection  through  to  Chicago, 
and  Jay  was  giving  out  to  that  Bull  clique  of  his  that 
it  was,  therefore,  a  good  time  to  operate  for  a  rise. 
I  didn't  know  these  facts.  I  was  so  busy  watching 


396          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

our  campaign  in  Erie,  and  trying  to  support  the 
market  there,  that  I  didn't  pay  hardly  any  attention 
to  "Nor Vest."  Until  one  day  —  it  was  Friday,  I 
might  have  known  something  was  going  to  go  wrong 
-  as  I  was  watching  the  ticker,  "Nor' west"  jumped 
up  from  83  to  95  in  a  single  hour.  Then  it  bounded  up 
to  par,  dropped  back  to  90,  and  finally  went  to  105. 

Even  then  I  didn't  realize  how  tight  the  corner 
was.  I  ought  to  have  covered  my  shorts  without 
a  moment's  delay  —  cut  short  your  losses  and  let 
your  profits  run,  is  the  rule.  But  I  stood  to  lose  so 
much  at  the  105  figure,  that  I  decided  to  wait  and 
hope  for  lower  levels.  So  I  kept  up  a  good  show 
of  spirits.  That  Saturday  afternoon  some  one  said 
to  me,  in  a  teasing  way:  "Uncle,  Northwestern  is 
rising." 

"Rising?"  I  replied.     "Why,  it's  riz!" 

But  though  I  made  believe  I  wasn't  scared,  I  was 
as  uneasy  as  a  toad  on  a  hot  shovel. 

Hen  Smith  was  also  a  Bear  with  me  in  this  North 
western  movement.  He  was  short  even  more  shares 
than  I.  He  knew  of  some  doings  in  the  Erie  Rail 
road  Company  in  the  last  few  months  that  would 
look  bad  for  Gould  if  they  came  out.  So  he  went  to 
the  president  of  the  Erie  Railroad  and  got  him  to 
obtain  a  warrant  for  Gould's  arrest.  We  calculated 
that  if  Gould  could  be  put  behind  the  bars,  it  would 
take  from  the  Street  the  man  who  was  supporting 
the  "Northwestern"  market,  and  so  cause  it  to  drop. 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         397 

We  got  Gould  into  the  hands  of  the  Sheriff.  But  he 
secured  bail;  and  was  madder  than  ever  when  he 
got  back  into  the  Street. 

Well,  to  cut  it  off  short,  we  were  cornered.  The 
price  was  ballooned  to  230.  The  rest  of  our  Bear 
party  were  let  off  at  from  150  to  160.  Hen  Smith 
and  I  were  the  only  ones  who  couldn't  arrange  a  com 
promise.  I  went  over  to  Gould's  office  several  times 
to  get  him  to  let  me  off.  He  was  very  polite.  We 
got  along  fine  so  long  as  our  talk  was  about  former 
days  and  the  pleasant  times  we  had  used  to  have 
together.  But  the  moment  I  switched  the  talk 
around,  sort  of  gradual  like,  to  those  Northwestern 
shares  that  I'd  agreed  to  deliver,  he  got  as  cold  as 
charity. 

"No  use,  Drew,"  he  said  finally  —  this  was 
Saturday  -  "I  was  caught  once,  and  I  paid  up  man- 
fashion.  Now  you've  got  to  pay  up.  I've  learned 
some  lessons  from  you  in  financiering,  and  have 
taken  them  well  to  heart.  The  entire  difference 
between  the  stock  at  its  present  level  and  the  level 
at  which  you  made  your  contracts,  must  be  paid  in 
cash,  and  good  solid  cash  at  that.  Don't  come  again 
unless  you  bring  the  money  with  you." 

I  thought  of  two  or  three  ways  to  get  out  of  the  hole. 
One  was  to  get  out  an  injunction.  But  the  Stock 
Exchange  had  made  a  ruling  that  any  one  inter 
fering  with  an  officer  of  the  Exchange  in  the  dis 
charge  of  his  duty,  such  as  enforcing  deliveries  when 


398          THE   BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW 

they  fell  due,  and  such  like,  would  be  put  out.  Then 
I  thought  of  repudiating  the  contracts  my  brokers 
had  made  in  my  name.  I  figured  that  my  brokers 
were  more  able  to  carry  these  losses  than  I  was  in 
my  present  condition.  But  the  trouble  here  was, 
I  myself  was  financially  interested  in  the  very  firm 
of  brokers  that  had  done  the  work.  For  when  I 
came  back  into  the  Street,  after  my  war  with  Van- 
derbilt  and  my  few  months  of  retirement,  I  had 
become  a  special  partner  in  the  brokerage  house 
of  Kenyon,  Cox  &  Co.,  by  paying  three  hundred 
thousand  dollars  into  the  business.  So,  if  I  fell 
down  on  them  now,  I  would  really  be  falling  down 
on  myself. 

The  Saturday  came  to  an  end  without  any  result. 
The  next  day,  Sunday,  was  a  hard  one.  At  the  price 
at  which  the  stock  then  stood,  I  would  lose  over  two 
million  dollars;  and  I  could  see  no  way  out.  It  was 
a  long,  dark  day.  When  the  Exchange  opened 
Monday  morning,  I  tried  Gould  again,  but  without 
any  success.  I  made  up  my  mind  I'd  have  to  stand 
a  loss,  and  set  about  to  make  it  as  small  as  possible. 
I  borrowed  a  part  of  the  twenty  thousand  shares  I 
was  short.  I  also  got  hold  of  some  convertible 
bonds  which  could  be  turned  into  stock.  In  this 
way  I  made  a  settlement.  It  was  at  about  125. 
The  difference  between  $83  and  $125,  was  the 
amount  of  my  loss  on  every  share!  And  there  were 
twenty  thousand  of  those  shares!  My  loss  was  over 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         399 

three-quarters  of  a  million  dollars.  The  price  of 
the  stock  then  sank  to  75.  But  this  didn't  do  me 
any  good.  I  had  been  chiselled  out  of  my  good 
money.  It  didn't  make  any  difference  to  me  then 
if  the  stock  sank  to  nothing. 

You  don't  get  much  sympathy  in  Wall  Street  when 
you  stub  your  toe.  All  I  could  hear  was  snickers, 
wherever  I  went.  About  this  time,  also,  the  news 
papers  let  loose  on  me  again.  One  of  them  came 
out  like  this: 

We  cannot  affect  to  have  any  sympathy  with 
these  men,  and  least  of  all  with  Drew.  He  has 
been  one  of  the  curses  of  the  market  for  years  past. 
If  he  has  now  received  such  a  blow  as  will  result  in 
his  being  driven  from  the  Street  altogether,  no  one 
will  be  sorry  for  him. 

Daniel  Drew  does  not  care  a  fig  what  people 
think  about  him,  or  what  the  newspapers  say.  He 
holds  the  honest  people  of  the  world  to  be  a  pack  of 
fools,  and  you  might  as  well  try  to  scratch  the  back 
of  a  rhinoceros  with  a  pin  as  to  scratch  his  mind  - 
if  he  has  one  —  by  preaching  about  morals.  When 
he  has  been  unusually  lucky  in  his  trade  of  fleecing 
other  men,  he  settles  accounts  with  his  conscience 
by  subscribing  towards  a  new  chapel  or  attending 
a  prayer  meeting  —  as  a  sharper  he  is  undeniably 
a  success. 

The  mud-thrower  who  wrote  that  said  one  true 
thing,  that  I'm  not  fidgety  as  to  what  people  think  of 


400          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

me.  It  was  the  loss  of  the  money  that  hurt.  Gould 
was  the  person  I  felt  sore  against.  When  he  was 
getting  me  to  go  into  that  "Northwestern"  dicker,  he 
was  nice  as  anything.  That's  the  way  with  a 
treacherous  man  —  to  come  up  to  me  holding  a 
knife  behind  his  back,  smile  in  my  face  till  he  got 
close  up,  and  then  dig  me  in  the  guts! 

Gould  and  his  crowd  tried  to  give  out  that  Van- 
derbilt  was  in  with  them  in  the  "Northwestern" 
deal.  But  the  Commodore  came  out  with  a  plump 
"'Taint  so": 

The  recent  corner  in  Northwestern  has  caused 
some  considerable  excitement  in  Wall  Street,  and 
has  called  forth  much  comment  from  the  press.  My 
name  has  been  associated  with  others,  in  connec 
tion  with  the  speculations,  and  gross  injustice  has 
been  done  me  thereby.  I  beg  leave,  therefore,  to  say, 
once  for  all,  that  I  have  not  had,  either  directly 
or  indirectly,  the  slightest  connection  with  or  inter 
est  in  the  matter.  I  have  had  but  one  business 
transaction  with  Mr.  Gould  in  my  life.  In  July, 
1868, 1  sold  him  a  lot  of  stock,  for  which  he  paid  me, 
and  the  privilege  of  a  call  for  a  further  lot,  which 
he  also  settled.  Since  then  I  have  had  nothing  to 
do  with  him  in  any  way  whatever;  nor  do  I  mean 
ever  to  have,  except  it  be  to  defend  myself.  I  have, 
besides,  always  advised  all  my  friends  to  have  noth 
ing  to  do  with  him  in  any  business  transaction.  I 
came  to  this  conclusion  after  taking  particular  notice 
of  his  countenance. 

C.  VANDERBILT. 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW        401 

So  many  people  got  to  tittering  at  me  because 
of  this  "Northwestern"  affair,  that  by  and  by  it 
made  me  sore.  Rub  a  scalded  horse  on  the  gall,  and 
he'll  wince,  no  matter  how  tough  a  set  of  nerves  he's 
got.  My  cronies  in  the  Street  poked  fun  at  me 
over  this  squeeze! — they  laughed  as  though  they'd 
split.  I  didn't  see  anything  so  all-fired  amusing  in  it. 
To  be  sliced  out  of  the  earnings  of  half  a  lifetime, 
and  by  so  beneathen  a  trick  that  I've  hated  to  put 
it  down  in  these  papers  —  let  such  a  trick  have  been 
played  on  them,  and  I  guess  they'd  have  winced,  too. 

But  I  got  back  at  them.  One  day,  soon  after, 
I  walked  hastily  into  the  Union  Club,  on  Fifth  Ave 
nue.  Most  of  the  people  there  knew  me.  I  had 
hurried,  and  now  was  considerable  het  up.  So, 
when  I  got  inside  the  door  where  they  all  were,  I 
pulled  out  my  handkerchief  and  mopped  my  face 
and  neck.  In  doing  so,  I  flicked  a  paper  out  of  my 
pocket,  making  believe  that  it  was  by  accident. 
It  fluttered  to  the  floor.  I  passed  on  without 
seeming  to  notice  it.  After  looking  around  a  min 
ute  or  two,  as  though  trying  to  find  somebody,  I  went 
back  into  the  Street.  Of  course,  after  I  got  out  the 
people  in  there  picked  up  the  paper,  and  there  they 
saw  what  looked  to  be  an  order  from  me  to  my 
broker: 


"  Buy  all  of  the  Oshkosh  you  can,  at  any  price 
you  can  get.  D.  DREW." 


402          THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

They  gathered  at  once  that  a  Bull  movement  in 
"Oshkosh"  stock  was  under  way.  As  always  happens 
in  such  cases,  they  told  their  friends.  A  buying 
movement  started  in.  When  they  started  to  buy 
I  started  to  sell.  I  unloaded  on  them  at  a  good 
figure  a  lot  of  "Oshkosh"  that  I  was  holding  at  that 
time,  and  that  I  had  feared  I  wouldn't  be  able 
to  get  rid  of.  They  didn't  laugh  at  me  after  that. 
They  saw  now  how  it  feels  to  be  parted  from  good 
money. 


XXXIX 

A  RE  PORTER  came  to  me  one  afternoon  in 
my  office,  which  was  now  in  Whitely  and 
Neilson's,  at  Exchange  Place.  He  said 
the  Erie  Railroad  was  going  to  sue  me  for  the  seven 
million  dollars  I  carried  with  me  when  I  scooted 
from  Vanderbilt  to  "Fort"  Taylor  in  Jersey  City. 
The  news  scared  me. 

"Sue  me?"  I  said.  "What  can  the  Company 
sue  me  for  ?  Why,  I  haven't  been  in  that  concern 
for  four  years!  I  finished  up  there  as  treasurer, 
and  squared  up  all  the  accounts  before  I  left.  I 
don't  see  why  they  want  to  sue  me." 

"Mr.  Drew,  they  are  about  to  sue  you  for  one 
hundred  thousand  shares  of  stock  which  you  issued, 
they  claim,  illegitimately." 

"  Well,  now !"  I  answered.  "  I  don't  see  what  they 
want  to  do  it  for.  I  credited  the  Company  with 
the  proceeds  of  the  sales,  and  unless  it  had  the 
money  at  the  time  it  would  have  bust;  for  the  fact  is, 
the  road  was  just  dead  broke.  It's  queer  that  they 
should  pitch  upon  me." 

I  made  believe  that  I  wasn't  bothered  by  the  news. 
Just  the  same,  it  worried  me  considerable.  Law- 

403 


404          THE   BOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW 

suits  are  expensive  things,  no  matter  which  way 
they  turn  out;  and  then,  too,  even  after  the  cost  of 
the  suit,  I  might  lose  in  the  end. 

This  suit  by  the  Erie  Company  alone  would  not 
have  been  so  bad.  But  my  own  flesh  and  blood 
now  began  to  get  at  me.  When  my  son-in-law  died, 
he  had  made  me  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  property 
which  he  left  to  his  children.  I  had  contrived  after 
a  spell  to  become  the  sole  trustee  of  this  property. 
But  now  my  grandchildren  were  getting  into  a  com 
plaining  state  of  mind.  They  said  I  hadn't  invested 
the  money,  as  the  terms  of  the  deed  of  trust  required. 
They  didn't  stop  to  think  that  by  using  the  money 
in  my  Wall  Street  speckilations,  I  stood  the  chance 
of  making  a  lot  more  than  just  the  scrawny  6  per 
cent,  you  get  when  you  put  money  away  in  a  per 
manent  investment.  I  tried  to  explain  this  to  them, 
but  they  wouldn't  listen.  They  began  lawsuits 
against  me  in  the  open  courts.  By  and  by  the 
Supreme  Court  dismissed  me  from  my  position  as 
trustee  of  my  own  grandchildren's  property,  and 
put  another  person  in  my  place.  This  got  noised 
abroad  in  the  Street,  and  hurt  me  a  good  deal  in  my 
Wall  Street  dickerings.  People  said:  "His  flesh 
and  blood  don't  run  any  risk  with  Uncle  Dan'l." 

On  the  top  of  my  other  troubles  came  the  Panic 
of  '73.  Stocks  slumped  right  and  left.  Dividends 
fell  off  on  all  my  investments.  Now  it  was  hard 
for  me  sometimes  to  get  money  for  my  living 


THE   BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW        405 

expenses.  It  began  to  look  pretty  scary  for  me. 
I  was  being  threatened  with  lawsuits  on  every  side. 
Flies  come  thick  when  a  horse  has  a  galled  back. 
I  didn't  know  but  what  every  time  my  door  bell 
rang  at  night,  it  was  a  process-server;  or  maybe  the 
Sheriff,  coming  to  sell  me  out. 

By  and  by,  as  the  summer  passed  and  autumn 
came,  the  worst  of  the  panic  seemed  to  be  over. 
The  big  men  in  the  business  world  had  got  under 
the  market  and  were  supporting  it  from  further 
slump.  People  began  to  breathe  easier.  Then  I 
saw  that  the  time  had  come  to  get  out  of  the  fix 
I  had  been  in.  During  the  last  few  months  I  had 
been  like  a  man  running  away  from  a  bull;  the  bull 
was  pressing  me  so  close  that  I  hadn't  had  time 
for  anything  else  but  to  run.  Now  was  a  little 
let-up.  This  gave  me  time  to  look  about  for  a  per 
manent  escape.  I  took  advantage  of  it.  I  set 
about  to  get  my  property  out  of  my  own  name. 
Then  if  a  crash  came,  I  would  have  property  to 
fall  back  on,  and  which  my  creditors  couldn't  get. 

Unfortunately,  this  move  of  mine  leaked  out. 
My  creditors  learned  what  I  was  trying  to  do.  They 
started  in  at  once  to  foreclose  on  the  firm  of  Kenyon, 
Cox  &  Co.,  Brokers,  in  which  I  was  tied  up.  That 
was  the  firm  through  which  I  had  worked  most  of 
my  stock-market  deals  of  late.  Its  name  was 
signed  to  the  obligations  I  had  incurred.  My 
enemies  now  charged  that  I  was  planning  to  fall 


4o6          THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

down  on  that  firm  and  leave  it  to  its  fate;  and  that 
therefore  they  were  not  going  to  be  caught  napping. 
So  they  brought  foreclosure  proceedings  against 
it,  and  the  firm  went  to  the  wall.  The  brokerage 
house  of  Kenyon,  Cox  &  Co.  was  tied  up  with  other 
big  houses  in  Wall  Street.  So  when  this  firm  fell, 
it  sent  other  houses  tumbling  headlong.  Thus  the 
panic  started  in  once  more,  and  this  time  in  good 
earnest.  The  country  was  just  then  like  a  patient 
trying  to  recover  from  a  hard  fever,  and  now  had 
suffered  a  relapse.  Doctors  say  that  a  relapse  is 
worse  than  the  first  sickness,  because  the  constitu 
tion  doesn't  have  the  strength  that  it  had  at  first. 
Anyhow,  that  seemed  to  be  the  case  with  the  country. 
The  men  of  means  who  had  got  under  the  market 
before  and  had  been  supporting  it,  got  discouraged 
when  this  second  crash  came,  and  gave  up  trying. 
House  after  house  tumbled.  Each  tumble  left  the 
houses  next  to  it  weaker.  Soon  a  panic  set  in  which 
spread  all  over  the  country. 

As  the  panic  increased,  I  felt  as  though  I  had 
kicked  over  a  bee-hive.  The  way  curses  came  buzz 
ing  around  my  ears  now  was  a  caution.  They  laid 
the  whole  thing  at  my  door  —  said  that  thousands 
of  merchants  and  farmers  and  people  generally  who 
were  being  ruined  in  this  Panic  of  '73,  and  the  poor 
people  who  suffered  so  in  the  winter  that  followed, 
would  lay  their  woes  to  me  for  all  time  to  come. 
Because  I,  at  a  critical  time  in  the  country's  first 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW        407 

recovery,  had  given  that  recovery  a  set-back  and  so 
started  the  fever  raging  worse  than  before. 

But  they  said  those  things  through  ignorance. 
They  didn't  realize  the  position  I  had  been  in,  that's 
all.  When  my  neighbour's  house  is  a-burning,  I 
haven't  time  to  help  him  —  I'm  looking  to  my  own 
roof.  When  I  started  in  on  that  scheme  to  get 
my  property  out  of  my  own  name,  and  so  brought 
about  the  failure  of  Kenyon,  Cox  &  Co.,  and  those 
other  failures  that  followed,  I  was  in  a  tight  fix. 
A  broken  ship  has  to  get  to  land  somehow.  People 
said:  "Dan  Drew  is  willing  to  burn  a  house  down, 
in  order  to  roast  a  few  eggs."  They  didn't  stop  to 
think  that  when  a  man  is  starving,  he'll  do  most 
anything  for  food. 

After  the  downfall  of  the  brokerage  house  in  which 
I  had  been  general  partner,  I  had  to  scratch  around 
good  and  lively  to  keep  from  going  under.  I  had 
put  my  house  on  Union  Square  out  of  my  own  name. 
Now  I  got  it  back  and  placed  a  mortgage  on  it.  A 
mortgage  on  his  house  is  a  bad  thing  for  a  Wall 
Street  operator,  because  the  news  leaks  out  and  hurts 
his  credit  in  the  Street  like  Old  Sambo.  But  I  had 
to  do  it.  Also,  I  told  the  trustees  of  Drew  Theo 
logical  Seminary  that  I  couldn't  pay  any  longer  that 
$17,500  a  year  interest  on  the  endowment  I'd 
promised.  (I  wished  then  that  I  had  handed  over 
the  full  quarter-million  when  I  had  had  it.) 

By  and   by  I   saw  I'd  have  to  do  something  in 


4o8          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW 

order  to  get  cash.  My  creditors  were  nagging  me 
on  every  side.  When  a  tree  is  fallen,  every  man 
goes  at  it  with  his  hatchet.  So,  after  the  Panic  of 
*73  was  finally  over,  I  set  to  work.  The  market 
by  this  time  had  got  settled.  Money  was  coming  into 
the  Street  once  more,  so  that  there  seemed  a  chance 
to  get  some  of  it.  I  planned  a  dicker  which,  if  suc 
cessful,  would  bring  me  in  a  fine  penny.  I  gathered 
around  me  a  few  men.  I  went  in  to  sell  stocks  for 
a  fall.  I  put  out  a  large  number  of  " Calls"  in 
"Wabash."  Of  late  years  I  had  been  doing  quite  a 
business,  anyhow,  in  ''Puts"  and  "Calls,"  because 
you  can  turn  over  your  capital  more  quickly  in  that 
way  than  by  buying  and  selling  stocks  outright. 

I  figured  now  that  if  I  could  put  out  a  big  enough 
line  of  shorts,  I  would  know  how  to  bring  about 
a  slump  in  prices  at  the  right  time.  This  was 
my  plan:  I  would  sell  stocks  for  a  decline.  Then 
I'd  corner  the  gold  market  and  thus  bring  to  pass 
the  very  decline  in  values  that  I  was  hoping  for 
-  seeing  that  when  money  is  high,  stocks  go  low. 
I  remembered  Fisk  and  Gould,  and  "Black  Friday." 
There  was  Belden,  for  instance.  Billy  Belden 
had  made  some  money  in  that  former  gold  speckila- 
tion  by  issuing  those  orders  to  Fisk  which  allowed 
Fisk  to  go  ahead  and  make  big  contracts  in  the 
gold  market  in  Belden's  name  and  so  escape  any 
legal  liability  against  himself  when  settling-up  time 
should  come.  I  calculated  now  that  with  the  more 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         409 

or  less  tight  condition  of  affairs  that  was  upon  the 
country  as  a  result  of  the  panic,  I  also  stood  a  chance 
to  turn  a  good  penny  by  operating  in  stocks  and  in 
gold  at  the  same  time. 

In  some  way  or  other  my  plans  didn't  just  carry 
out  as  I  had  calculated.  I  wasn't  any  longer  an 
insider,  as  I'd  been  back  in  former  days.  So  I  had 
to  go  into  my  speckilations  unsight,  unseen.  In 
wading  where  you  can't  see  bottom,  you  are  very 
like  to  step  off  into  a  deep  hole.  And  that  is 
what  I  did.  I  found  that  I  had  issued  my  "Calls" 
in  the  face  of  a  rising  market.  Do  the  best  I  could, 
I  wasn't  able  to  head  off  the  upward  movement. 
Gold  was  going  down,  prices  were  going  up;  and  it 
was  whip-sawing  me  in  both  directions.  As  the  best 
thing  to  do  under  the  circumstances,  I  started  in  to 
sell  my  holdings  of  gold  before  the  rest  of  my  crowd 
-  they  were  in  the  same  fix  that  I  was  in  —  could 
begin  to  do  it.  This  helped  me  a  little,  because 
it  got  me  out  of  the  box  I'd  have  found  myself  in  if 
I  had  kept  saddled  down  with  gold  at  a  time  when 
our  lock-up  of  gold  was  proving  a  failure.  But 
this  relief  wasn't  so  helpful  as  it  might  seem.  Because, 
when  I  began  to  release  the  gold  which  I  had  been 
locking  up,  it  made  money  more  plentiful  and  so 
made  stocks  rise  still  faster.  Thus  it  got  me  out 
of  the  one  hole,  only  to  get  me  deeper  into  the  other. 
By  and  by  the  holders  of  my  "Calls"  began  to 
pester  me  for  deliveries.  I  saw  that  I  wasn't  going  to 


4io          THE  BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

be  able  to  meet  them.  When  the  day  at  last  arrived 
I  didn't  feel  that  I  wanted  to  go  down  to  Wall  Street 
and  look  that  mob  of  angry  brokers  in  the  eye,  and 
have  them  shake  their  fists  in  my  face.  So  I  stayed 
home,  and  sent  word  down  that  I  was  sick.  But 
this  didn't  help  matters  so  very  much,  because  my 
creditors  in  the  Street  complained  that  if  I  was 
really  in  earnest  to  take  care  of  my  contracts,  I  would 
have  appointed  some  broker  to  represent  me,  while 
I  was  away  sick. 

"Lumbago"  is  a  good  disease  to  tell  people  you've 
got,  wrhen  you  don't  want  to  go  down  to  the  market. 
Because  it's  a  disease  that  is  serious  enough  to  keep 
you  home,  and  yet  will  let  you  be  up  and  around  the 
house  if  there  is  anything  you  want  to  attend  to. 
About  noon  that  day,  I  sent  a  telegram  down  to 
Dickinson  &  Co.,  from  my  home,  telling  how  I  was 
too  weak  to  come  down  to  the  Street,  and  asking 
them  to  notify  Robinson,  Chance  &  Co.,  my  regular 
brokers,  to  take  care  of  my  "Calls."  This  tele 
gram  didn't  help  as  much  as  I  had  hoped.  In  fact, 
it  got  me  in  still  deeper.  My  brokers  refused  to 
take  the  responsibility  of  taking  care  of  my  "Calls" 
without  a  written  and  signed  order  from  me,  in  my 
own  handwriting.  And  the  Street  said  I  had 
employed  this  roundabout  way  of  notifying  my 
brokers,  in  order  to  lay  down  on  those  brokers  and 
repudiate  my  contracts  when  the  time  should 
arrive.  Furthermore,  the  Street  now  got  notice 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW        411 

that  my  clique  to  corner  gold  and  depress  values 
had  been  broken.  So  the  price  of  gold  now  came 
tumbling  headlong. 

The  next  day,  before  the  opening  of  business,  I 
had  to  go  down  to  Broad  Street  and  meet  my 
contracts.  The  break  of  the  gold  ring  brought  a 
good  deal  of  happiness  to  merchants,  whose  busi 
ness  had  suffered  by  the  tightness  of  money  which 
my  manipulations  in  the  "Gold  Room"  had  made. 
But  it  hadn't  brought  any  happiness  to  me.  In 
fact,  the  whole  affair,  instead  of  helping  me  as  I 
had  hoped  it  would,  hurt  me  considerable.  I  tried 
to  give  out  that  I  hadn't  been  mixed  up  in  it.  But 
some  of  the  papers  came  out  the  next  day  and 
charged  me  with  it  point-blank,  in  spite  of  anything 
I  could  say.  For  instance,  one  of  them  came  out 
like  this: 

It  appears  that  Daniel  Drew  is  at  the  bottom 
of  the  present  attempt  to  force  up  the  price  of  gold. 
We  should  have  thought  that  Daniel  Drew  might, 
at  his  age,  have  devoted  what  remains  of  his  mind 
to  some  better  purpose.  Two  or  three  weeks  ago 
the  rumour  that  he  was  engaged  in  this  mischievous 
work  was  widely  circulated  and  we  sent  a  reporter 
to  him  to  make  inquiries  on  the  subject.  What  he 
said  on  that  occasion  was  as  follows: 

"My  boy,  I've  really  no  interest  in  this  thing. 
Some  folks  say  I'm  the  leader  of  the  pool,  but  I 
haven't  anything  to  do  with  it.  I  almost  never  have 
any  gold,  and  at  the  present  time  don't  own  a  dollar 


412          THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

of  it.  It's  all  folly;  why  won't  they  let  me  alone  ? 
I'm  trying  to  run  along  pleasantly  with  everybody 
in  the  Street;  but  I  can't.  First  the  Bulls  charge 
me  with  being  a  Bear,  and  then  the  Bears  say  I'm 
a  Bull.  They  shouldn't.  I'm  only  trying  to  make 
a  few  dollars  in  a  quiet,  easy  way,  and  would  like  to 
do  it  without  being  bothered.  Here's  my  brokers. 
They'll  tell  you  I  haven't  anything  to  do  with  the 
thing  —  ask  'em  —  I  won't  keep  them  from  telling 
the  truth.  They  know  all  about  me." 

There  are  two  things  which  this  ancient  per 
son  ought  to  know  without  our  telling  him.  One 
is  that  it  is  very  wrong  to  tell  lies;  the  other,  that  it 
is  a  very  scandalous  piece  of  work  to  deliberately 
try  to  paralyze  the  trade  of  the  country.  It  appears 
from  our  money  article  this  morning  that  the  people 
who  have  been  "in"  with  Daniel  Drew  in  this 
scheme  are  likely  to  burn  their  fingers.  We  hope 
they  will.  At  such  a  time  as  this,  when  the  spring 
trade  is  opening  under  favourable  circumstances, 
an  effort  to  create  a  gold  panic  is  about  as  vile  an 
act  as  it  would  be  to  set  fire  to  a  house.  The  vener 
able  Daniel  will  come  to  a  very  bad  end  if  he  goes  on 
in  this  way  much  longer. 

But  I  was  glad  to  see  that  I  had  been  able  to  get 
at  least  one  of  the  papers  to  put  some  credit  in  that 
report  of  sickness  which  I'd  sent  down  from  my 
house.  Because,  after  I  got  back  to  the  Street,  the 
New  Tork  Sun  came  out  with  this  editorial: 

Uncle  Daniel  Drew  went  down  into  Wall  Street 
yesterday  morning  in  a  coach.  His  face  was  worn 


THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW        413 

with  illness,  but  the  traces  of  grief  at  the  damage 
unintentionally  done  "the  boys"  by  his  sickness  were 
deeper  set  and  much  more  conspicuous  than  any 
left  by  a  brief  period  of  bodily  suffering.  Still, 
Uncle  DanTs  eyes  sparkled  with  their  wonted  bril 
liancy,  and  the  moment  he  cast  them  upon  the 
stock-list  tape  his  brokers  knew  that  he  was  all 
himself  again.  His  known  goodness  and  liberality 
gave  rise  to  a  rumour  that  he  contemplated  a  scheme 
of  making  good  the  losses  consequent  upon  the 
rumour  of  his  illness;  indeed,  Uncle  Dan'l  looked  so 
benevolent  and  smiled  so  sweetly  that  this  rumour 
did  not  seem  so  absurd  as  it  would  have  been  if 
coupled  with  the  name  of  any  other  man;  still,  those 
of  the  victims  who  waited  for  the  restitution  were 
disappointed.  Uncle  Dan'l  would  rather  found  a 
college  any  day  than  restore  a  cent. 


But  the  great  bulk  of  the  people  said  that  my 
sickness  was  only  an  attempt  to  lay  down  on  my 
brokers,  and  this  hurt  me  with  the  very  men  whom 
I  needed  most  to  stand  in  with.  It  left  me  lonesome. 
Brokers  would  still  take  my  orders,  provided  I  paid 
my  margins  in  advance.  But  they'd  now  get  the 
shivers  over  the  slightest  bit  of  rumour  about  me, 
and  sell  me  out  quick  —  said  they  couldn't  take  any 
chances.  I  couldn't  find  men  any  longer  to  go  in 
with  me  into  deals.  My  "Wabash"  dicker  was  going 
against  me,  because  I  was  now  all  alone.  I  could 
have  fought  the  thing  to  a  finish,  and  have  brought 
about  a  war  that  would  have  smashed  railroad 


4i4          THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW 

stocks  as  fine  as  anything;  only  I  couldn't  get  enough 
men  of  means  to  go  in  partnership  with  me.  People 
shut  their  doors  against  a  setting  sun.  With  the 
breaking  up  now  of  my  gold  clique  I  was  brought 
pretty  low. 

I  tried  to  keep  my  financial  conditions  secret. 
Because,  when  once  a  heifer  is  sick  and  laying  down, 
the  hounds  will  get  after  her  and  make  her  all  the 
sicker.  As  long  as  you  hold  your  head  up,  your 
rivals  are  scared  of  you,  and  let  you  alone.  The 
moment  they  see  you  sickening,  they  pounce  on  you 
like  crows  around  a  dead  cow.  I  tried  to  keep  it 
dark  that  my  property  was  melting  away.  But  the 
reporters  got  wind  of  it.  (It's  well-nigh  impossible 
to  keep  anything  from  those  boys  nowadays.)  When 
the  gossip  which  is  going  on  about  you  in  the  Street 
gets  into  the  public  sheets,  you're  in  a  bad  case. 
That  very  paper  which  had  put  some  credit  in  the 
report  of  my  sickness,  was  very  unfeeling  when  the 
gold  speckilation  finally  busted  up.  It  said: 

Yesterday  Mr.  Daniel  Drew,  aetat.  82,  kindly 
took  his  patriarchal  hand  from  the  throat  of  trade, 
gold  declined  in  price,  and  general  business  resumed 
the  indications  of  activity  which  it  has  recently 
given.  Deacon  Daniel  must  often  have  heard 
wicked  works  of  this  kind  denounced  on  Sunday; 
perhaps  he  has  even  lifted  up  his  voice  against 
them  himself.  We  hope  he  will  now  try  to  prac 
tice  what  he  preaches.  He  at  least  kept  his  business 


THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL   DREW         415 

engagements  yesterday,  which  was  more  than 
many  people  expected.  Let  him  now  try  to  turn  in 
an  honest  penny  without  striking  a  blow  at  the  trade 
of  the  whole  country. 

And  one  of  the  other  papers  said: 

We  shall  hope  that  there  is  no  truth  in  the  report 
that  the  recent  "railroad  war"  is  likely  to  break  out 
again.  It  caused  quite  enough  damage  while  it 
lasted,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  even  the  stock 
gamblers  could  have  gained  anything  by  it.  The 
trade  of  the  country  is  not  in  a  condition  just  at 
present  to  warrant  any  deliberate  attempt  to  disturb 
it.  The  gold  clique  in  this  city  has  for  the  present 
been  broken  up,  and  it  is  whispered  about  that  the 
pious  old  Daniel  Drew  has  been  brought  to  almost 
complete  ruin.  Thus,  one  by  one,  the  "Kings  of  the 
Street"  tumble  down.  Whose  turn  will  it  be  next  ? 

It  was  not  as  yet  true  that  this  "  King  of  the  Street" 
had  tumbled.  For  I  still  kept  on  my  legs.  But  I 
was  getting  more  shaky  all  the  time.  The  "Wabash" 
deal  turned  out  an  almighty  loss,  costing  me  a  plump 
half-million.  The  Street  plucked  me  feather  by 
feather.  Pretty  soon  Daniel  Drew  was  declared  a 
bankrupt. 


XL 


MY  BANKRUPTCY  really  came  about 
because  of  the  prosperity  of  the  country. 
During  the  days  of  the  Civil  War,  when 
things  looked  dark,  I  could  turn  a  fine  penny.  Three 
days  after  Fort  Sumter  was  fired  on,  stocks  fell 
twenty  per  cent.  And  in  McClellan's  campaign, 
when  those  right  and  left  wings  of  his  were  about 
to  surround  Richmond,  all  to  once  a  fine  slump 
in  values  set  in.  What  was  the  reason  ?  Why, 
we  financiers  had  got  advance  information  that 
McClellan  was  going  to  fall  back,  and  that  Abe 
was  about  to  call  for  300,000  more  men.  I  made 
money  on  it.  I  have  always  felt  more  at  home  in 
depressing  values  than  in  boosting  them.  I  guess 
I  am  a  Bear  by  nature,  so  to  speak,  having  always 
been  sort  of  conservative  and  cautious-like  in  my 
make-up.  During  those  days  of  my  prosperity, 
my  office  with  Dr.  Groesbeck  &  Co.,  at  15 
William  Street,  was  the  Bear  headquarters  for  the 
whole  Street.  In  these  four  little  rooms,  snug  and 
cozy,  most  of  the  Bear  campaigns  in  Wall  Street 
started.  In  the  front  room  were  half  a  dozen  clerks 
behind  a  railing,  writing  checks  to  pay  for  stocks, 

416 


THE   BOOK   OF   L.iNIEL   DREW         417 

with  two  or  three  boys  as  messengers.  A  little 
room  at  the  side  was  a  kind  of  conference  room 
where  we  consoled  the  customers,  and  such-like. 
In  the  next  room  were  most  of  the  customers  of  the 
house.  And  in  the  rear  room  you'd  have  found 
me,  seated  on  a  sofa.  This  was  the  starting-place 
for  most  of  the  bearing  down  movements  in  Wall 
Street  all  through  that  period.  "Grossy"  (that's 
the  name  I  used  to  give  to  Groesbeck)  had  gradu 
ated  from  the  office  of  Jake  Little,  and  so  was  fitted 
to  be  my  helper  in  Bear  operations.  Why,  even 
out  on  the  sidewalk  in  front  of  our  place,  the  talk 
used  to  be  all  for  a  fall  in  prices.  There  was  a 
Bearish  atmosphere  about  the  office  which  spread 
through  the  district. 

But  after  the  Civil  War,  stocks  seemed  possessed 
to  advance.  I  tried  to  check  this  movement,  in  the 
case  of  Erie  stock,  by  telling  how  the  prices  were 
rising  so  that  the  road  could  hardly  pay  expenses 
any  more.  I  pointed  out  how  she  now  had  to  pay 
$20,000  for  an  engine  that  she  could  have  bought 
before  the  war  for  $10,000.  But  I  didn't  succeed 
very  hefty.  There  were  a  great  many  people  who 
now  had  faith  in  the  future  of  the  Country.  Some 
how  or  other  I  have  never  been  able  to  feel  at  home 
in  this  new  age.  The  Country  isn't  what  it  used 
to  be  when  I  was  in  my  prime,  back  in  the  fifties. 
There's  a  change  in  the  very  religion,  to-day.  In 
my  church,  where  I  have  sat  year  after  year,  and 


4i8        THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

even  in  my  Theological  Seminary,  there  are  notions 
being  taught  which  are  different  from  the  old-time 
teachings.  Preachers  are  now  talking  so  ever 
lastingly  about  this  earth.  I  have  done  my  best 
to  get  them  to  stick  to  the  gospel  and  not  allow 
worldliness  to  get  into  the  teachings  of  the  church. 
Still,  these  new  and  strange  doctrines  are  spreading 
more  and  more.  The  good  old  preachers  have  gone 
to  glory.  I  am  still  found  in  my  pew  on  the  Lord's 
day.  But  I'm  free  to  say  that  I  don't  enjoy  it  any 
wheres  near  so  much  as  I  used  to. 

When  I  went  into  bankruptcy,  I  let  everything 
go  —  made  a  thorough  job  of  it.  I  thought  I  might 
as  well  go  the  whole  hog,  so  to  speak.  The  schedule 
of  bankruptcy  which  I  made  out  showed  this.  The 
following  is  all  the  property  which  I  had  in  my  hands 
at  the  time: 

Watch  and  Chain         $150 

Sealskin  Coat 150 

Wearing  Apparel 100 

Bible,  Hymn  books,  etc 130 

That  sealskin  coat  was  a  costly  thing,  which  I 
wouldn't  have  had  if  I'd  had  to  buy  it  myself.  But 
Robinson  came  down  from  Montreal  one  day  with 
three  fur  coats,  one  for  himself,  one  for  me,  and  one 
for  Jimmy  Fisk.  I  remember  we  had  a  merry  time 
in  the  office  when  he  made  the  presentations.  Because 
all  three  of  us  had  been,  in  some  way  or  other,  in 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW        419 

the  circus  business.  So  we  pretended,  after  we  had 
got  the  fur  coats  on,  that  we  were  all  Bears.  Jimmy 
went  cavorting  around  the  room  on  all  fours,  so 
comical  you'd  have  hurt  yourself  laughing.  I  have 
missed  Jimmy  a  good  deal  since  he  was  taken  away. 
He  was  as  lively  as  a  louse. 

Besides  the  sealskin  coat,  there  wasn't  anything 
in  my  bankruptcy  schedule,  as  anybody  can  see, 
which  showed  much  property  left  in  my  hands. 
The  hymn  book  was  valuable  to  me,  but  it  wasn't 
to  anybody  else.  In  fact,  my  creditors  said  the 
bankruptcy  was  so  complete  that  they  doubted  its 
genuineness;  and  they  started  to  have  me  examined 
by  Commissioners,  in  order  to  get  their  clutches  onto 
some  of  the  railroad  stock  and  other  property  which 
I  had  put  out  of  my  own  name.  This  examination 
put  me  to  a  lot  of  inconvenience.  I  had  never 
kept  books.  Drovers  don't  keep  books,  anyhow. 
The  way  we  drovers  used  to  do,  when  two  or  three 
of  us  would  go  into  a  partnership,  was  to  put  what 
money  each  of  us  had  into  one  big  wad,  which  one 
of  the  partners  would  hold.  Any  money  paid 
out  would  be  taken  from  the  wad.  Any  money 
we  made  would  be  put  into  the  wad.  Then,  when 
the  partnership  was  dissolved,  all  we  would  need  to 
do  would  be  to  count  the  money  in  the  wad  and 
divide  it  up  even.  So  when  the  Commissioners  in 
Bankruptcy  got  after  me  to  show  checkbooks,  ledgers, 
and  so  on,  I  didn't  have  any  to  show.  I  had  kept 


420         THE   BOOK   OF  DANIEL   DREW 

my  accounts  in  my  head.  They  didn't  like  that. 
They  said  it  was  only  an  excuse  —  which  it  wasn't. 

They  pushed  me  so  hard  that  by  and  by  I  had  to 
do  something  to  get  rid  of  them.  So  I  made  out 
that  I  was  sick.  I  took  to  my  bed.  Even  at  my 
bedside  they  kept  pestering  me  with  questions. 
One  day  I  made  out  that  I  was  too  feeble,  and  the 
doctor  said  to  them  that  the  examination  would 
have  to  wait  over  for  a  day,  while  I  recovered  my 
strength.  That  gave  me  the  chance  I  was  looking 
for.  After  they  were  out  of  the  house  I  up  and 
dressed,  and  took  the  train,  without  letting  anybody 
know  where  I  was  going.  But  this  didn't  help 
for  very  long.  The  Commissioners  found  I  had 
gone  up  to  Putnam  County.  They  followed  me 
there,  to  Brewsters',  and  said  that  the  examination 
must  go  on.  I  had  to  consent.  They  put  me  under 
the  drag,  and  harrowed  me  both  ways.  But  I  tired 
them  out.  By  and  by  they  left,  without  having  got 
hold  of  anything. 

I  had  had  so  much -trouble  in  getting  out  of  New 
York  and  back  to  my  native  county,  that,  now  I 
was  there,  I  decided  to  stay.  After  so  many  years 
in  the  city,  the  hills  round  about  Brewsters'  and 
Carmel  looked  good  to  me.  So  I  settled  down  to 
live  the  rest  of  my  life  in  the  country. 

But  after  a  few  months,  Putnam  County  wasn't 
so  attractive.  There  were  a  number  of  farmers  up 
there  whom  I'd  dealt  with  back  in  my  drover  days. 


THE   BOOK   OF   DANIEL   DREW         421 

And  now  they  kept  dunning  me  to  pay  for  critters 
I  had  bought  from  them  nigh  onto  forty  years  before. 
Small  creditors  are  worse  than  body  lice.  Why, 
one  day,  right  on  the  fair  grounds  at  Carmel,  old 
Ebenezer  Gay  came  up  to  me  and  bellowed  out 
before  all  the  people: 

"Mister  Drew,  isn't  it  about  time  you  paid  me 
for  that  there  calf?" 

I  told  him  I  didn't  know  about  any  calf.  He 
said  I'd  bought  one  from  him  back  in  my  drover 
days  and  had  never  paid  him.  He  went  on  to  make 
such  a  fuss  about  it,  saying  debtors  have  short  mem 
ories,  and  such-like,  that,  to  get  rid  of  him,  I  up  and 
paid  the  money.  But  I  saw  that  if  I  was  going  to 
have  any  property  left  to  live  on,  I'd  have  to  get 
away  from  there.  A  man  could  be  nibbled  to 
death  by  ducks,  if  there  were  enough  of  them. 

Besides,  I  began  to  feel  a  hankering  for  Wall 
Street  once  more.  After  a  few  months,  it  got 
almighty  dull  out  in  Putnam  County.  You  can't  tell 
out  there  how  the  market  is  going,  until  the  day 
after;  then  it's  too  late.  I  found  that  I  was  tied 
to  the  Street  like  a  cat  to  the  saucer.  I  felt  that  if 
I  could  get  back  into  the  financial  district,  I'd  be 
able  to  make  some  money.  I  remembered  how  much 
I  used  to  make  there.  I  was  like  a  heifer  lowing 
for  the  green  pastures.  I  couldn't  be  at  ease. 

Pretty  soon  I  moved  back  to  New  York.  I  put 
up  at  the  Hoffman  House.  My  wife  had  died  before 


422          THE   BOOK   OF   DANIELS  &EW 

we  left  the  mansion  at  Union  Square.  That  man 
sion  had  now  been  sold  at  auction.  So  I  went  to 
the  Hoffman  House,  where  I  could  be  close  to  the 
Stock  and  Gold  Tickers.  I  was  talking  there  with 
a  Mr.  Knight,  one  evening  soon  after  I  got  back. 

"You  mean  to  say  that  you  have  come  back  to 
go  into  active  operations  once  more?"  he  asked. 

"Yes,"  I  answered;  "the  boys  think  I'm  played 
out.  But  I'll  give  them  many  a  twist  and  turn  yet." 

I  spoke  big  then.  But  I  have  found  it  harder  to 
get  back  into  active  affairs  than  I  looked  for.  Who 
cares  for  old  cattle  ?  Brokers  now  are  shy  of  me. 
Whenever  the  market  begins  to  turn  against  me, 
I'm  up  and  sold  out.  Besides,  I  don't  seem  to  get 
over  a  loss  as  easy  as  I  used  to.  One  day  I  was  so 
down  in  the  mouth  at  a  bad  turn  in  the  market, 
that  I  took  more  than  I  guess  I  ought  to.  Because, 
some  time  after,  I  found  myself  in  a  room  in  the 
Sturtevant  House,  in  bed.  A  couple  of  my  old  friends 
called  on  me  there.  They  had  a  bottle  or  two  brought 
up  into  the  room,  and  offered  to  treat  me.  But 
I  didn't  want  them  to  see  me  taking  anything.  So 
I  shook  my  head,  No.  They  coaxed.  Then  they 
looked  at  each  other  as  much  as  to  say,  "It's  time 
we  were  going."  By  and  by  they  went  away.  But 
they  left  the  bottle  behind.  I  felt  that  this  was  very 
good  of  them.  Because  I  felt  the  need  just  then 
of  something  to  cheer  me  up,  and  I  wasn't  feeling 
rich  enough  to  buy  it  myself. 


THt     iOOK  OF   DANIEL   DREW         423 

It  was  lonesome  work,  living  at  a  hotel.  So  I 
have  got  my  son  to  move  down  from  Brewsters', 
and  hire  a  house  on  East  Forty-second  Street,  to 
make  a  home  for  me.  I  have  had  him  put  a  stock 
ticker  in  the  basement  of  the  house.  This  saves 
me  the  trouble  of  going  down  to  the  financial 
district  every  day.  Because  there  are  times  now 
when  I  feel  so  feeble  that  I  can't  go  out  of  the  house. 
And  yet  I  don't  just  want  to  give  up  speckilating. 
You  never  can  tell  when  you  are  going  to  make  the 
lucky  hit.  Give  up,  and  just  then  you  might  have 
been  on  the  eve  of  a  turn  in  your  luck  that  would 
have  brought  you  back  all  the  money  you  had  lost, 
and  a  lot  more  besides. 

But  the  turn  in  my  luck  seems  almighty  slow  in 
coming.  To  speckilate  in  Wall  Street  when  you  are 
no  longer  an  insider,  is  like  buying  cows  by  candle 
light.  I  don't  know  as  I  can  keep  the  thing  up  much 
longer.  The  other  night  I  had  a  bad  spell  —  kind  of 
an  epileptic  attack,  the  doctor  called  it.  And  he  said, 
at  my  age  it's  likely  to  come  on  again  at  any  time. 

I  manage  to  get  to  church  still.  I  take  part  the  best 
I  can  in  the  Lord's  Day  services.  The  preaching  isn't 
like  what  it  used  to  be.  Still,  I  try  to  keep  up  heart. 

From  every  stormy  wind  that  blows, 
From  every 

THE    END 


HOME  USE 

CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 
MAIN  LIBRARY 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 
1-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling  642-3405. 
6-month  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing  books 

to  Circulation  Desk. 
Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior 

to  due  date. 

ALL  BOOKS  ARE  SUBJECT  TO  RECALL  7  DAYS 
AFTER  DATE  CHECKED  OUT. 


OCT     71975i., 


REG*  CUt      OCT  5 


MAR  I  £  1979 


iLC.  VIA.     FEB 


-         AUG  2  8  1982  9  0 
^  ~~~~ 


il  . 


LD2i  —  A-40m-i2,'74  General  Library 

(S2700L)  University  of  California 

Berkeley 


U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


